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REV. SAM P. JONES. 



"vX^-vvilXi, 0>G^vv\AAJ2_X VTlMA. 

Lightning Flashes 
and Thunderbolts 



A Series of Gospel Sermons and Talks by Rev. 

Sam P. Jones, the great Georgia evangelist, 

in Savannah, Ga., in 1901. Scenes 

and Incidents of the meeting. 

George Stuart and others. 






Compiled by J. S. Shingler. 

Ashburn, Ga. 




PENTECOSTAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
Louisville, Ky. 



v 3%5 Ls 



Copyright 1912 
By J. S. Shindler 



©CU328570 






■CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction 5 

Jones' Meetings On 9 

Here for a Fight 15 

The Opening Event 2>2 

Spoke on Opportunity 30 

Grave them Gospel 33 

iStuart's Moral Dance 40 

Gone to Oartersville 43 

Evils begin at Home 44 

Cheerful Keligion 51 

A Warm Sermon 54 

Liens on the Tabernacle 64 

Had Many Penitents 65 

Gave Elks a Dig ... . 68 

Back at Aldermen 77 

Sam Jones' Different Sides 87 

Siam Jones to Men 92 

Warned of Death 108 

Wouldn't be an Elk 117 

The Saving Power 121 



A Thief Disguised 134 

Preached on Praying 146 

Giave them Gospel 150 

Got Back at Keilly 157 

Paul's Epistle to Samuel 168 

Not a Worship Disturber 174 

A Sea of Dark Faces 176 

Amusing Things of Sam Jones 186 

Sam Jones in Jail 190 

Sam Jones to Men 198 

Won 1,000 Converts 209 

S<am Jones' Apology 214 

The Devil's In It 228 

A Man Must Ohoose 237 

Jones to the Women 244 

An Appeal for the W. <C. T. U 255 

Sam Jones' Warning 256 

Sam Jones Touches up Evil 270 

The Meeting Over 276 



INTRODUCTION. 

His old school teacher must have been in a prophe- 
tic mood, for he wrote wiser than he knew, when, at 
his country school closing exercise, over half a century 
ago, he put into the mouth of his little pupil, as his 
part of the programme, a recitation which ended with 
these words: 

"In coming years, in thunder tones, 
This world will hear from Sammie Jones." 

That the world did hear, as it heard from none 
other, in unmistakable utterances, for over two de- 
cades, from one end of the land to the other is a mat- 
ter of current history. 

It is probably true that, during his evangelistic 
ministry, the Rev. Sam P. Jones spoke continuously 
to larger audiences and was instrumental in winning 
more men and women from the paths of sin than 
any other single human instrument during the same 
period. Attracted by his plain, direct speech; his 
bitter denunciation of civic, ae well as social sins; 
the utter fearlessness of the man and his peculiarities 
of style many came out of curiosity, expecting to 
be entertained and, while they did laugh, a large pro- 
portion of them remained to weep and to pray, while all 
went away determined to live better lives and "the 
slain of the Lord" were many, besides the marked im- 
provement and the toning up of local conditions. 

5 



"Lightning Flashes and Thunderbolts" reproduces 
a newspaper account of one of Brother Jones' great 
meetings held in the spring of 1901, in the city of Sa- 
vannah. There is nothing original claimed for the con- 
tents of the book. It has been compiled by one who never 
had the privilege of meeting or listening to Georgia's 
great evangelist, but who esteemed him as a one of the 
most powerful men of his century and who could reach 
those that others could not." It is quite needless to say 
that this volume is sent forth with the single desire that 
it may 'be an instrument for good. These virile mes- 
sages are given to the public with the confident belief 
that they are as much needed to-day as when they were 
delivered and that their reading will be a tonic to pub- 
lic sentiment, as well as to individual life. 

The reader should bear in mind that the entire book 
is a reproduction from the columns of a daily news- 
paper and that it has not been edited, or corrected in 
the least. It does not do full justice to Brother Jones, 
either in the style or the matter of his sermons. Nat- 
urally, these reports lean to the sensational, rela- 
ting as they do, in part, to local conditions. And then, 
it was not within the range of human possibility for 
anyone, much less the average reporter of a city daily, 
to reproduce, in its entirety, a sermon of this great evan- 
gelist. His terrific denunciation of sin, his bitter scorn 
of hypocrisy, his indefinable humor, his tender pathos, 
his sympathy for lost men, hi9 inimitable power of il- 
lustration, the magic tones of his marvelous voice, tihe 
merry twinkle of his powerful eye, the effect of his 
pauses, these and other similar qualities could no more 

6 



be put upon paper than could the flash of the light- 
ning or the reverberations of its succeeding thunder. 
And yet, with all of this missing, this series of 
utterances of one of the world's leading evangelists is 
surely worth while. A reader of the manuscript of thi.3 
volume before it was sent to the printer, expressed it 
as his judgment that there was not a sermon in it 
but was well worth the price of the whole. 

Two classes of readers will welcome this book — those 
who knew and loved Brother Jones and those who never 
had the privilege of sitting under the sound and in- 
fluence of that magic voice now silent these six years. 
The first will, in a measure, live over again the high 
privilege of attending one of his great meetings and 
their hearts will be warmed, and stirred, and their eyes 
will be moistened, while they thank God for the won- 
derful grace revealed in the messenger. The other class 
will read and wonder at the marvelous power displayed 
in the redemption of this reclaimed drunkard, while 
some of them will lay down the book to pray that they 
too may know that grace in their hearts and lives. And 
thus Brother Jones, though dead in the Lord and rest- 
ing from his arduous labors, will yet speak and his works 
will follow him. 

W. E. Towson. 

Parsonage, Ashburn, Ga., October 31, 1912. 



JONES MEETINGS ON. 

EVANGELIST STUART COMES TO-DAY' CROWDS OF PEOPLE 

HEARD THE TALK BY MR. STUART. 

The Tabernacle filled to overflowing. — Music a 
feature of the service. — Methods' were a departure 
from those to which Savannah has been accustom- 
ed. — Preacher lauded Mr. Jones and had a word 
for the Coochee-Chooche dance and "Cussing" as 
he has heard it in Savannah. 

Staid Savannah was treated to a new experience last 
night. Conservatism in Religion has been a mark of 
the city for years, but the even tenor of its way was in- 
terrupted by Rev. George R. Stuart, who preached the 
first of the sermons that are to be delivered during the 
course of their meetings by himself and Rev. Sam 
Jones, who will arrive this morning from Waycross. Ser- 
vices will be held at the Tabernacle in the Park Exten- 
sion this afternoon at 4:30 o'clock and again tonight. 
Both, evangelists will preach, one at one service and the 
otheT at the other. The arrangement will be made be- 
tween them today. 

The Tabernacle was crowded last night, and all about 
the structure, lined; up on the outside, were people gath- 
ered to hear the evangelist. Before 8 o'clock the congre- 
gation began gathering, and there was a steady influx 
for half an hour or more. Of the many assembled, the 
fair sex furnished the greater number, showing appar- 

9 



10 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

ently, that stories of what might be said had not the 
power to keep the ladies away. 

Music was ia distinct feature of the service, and will 
be throughout the meeting. Mr. J. W. Eamsay is musi- 
cal conductor for Mr. Stuart, while Mr. Charles D. Till- 
man, of Atlanta, will fill that post for Mr. Jones. On 
the platform, behind the preacher, the choir was sta- 
tioned, each member wearing a badge. The first taste 
of anything else than the suave, polite and well modu- 
lated ministerial utterances to which they had been ac- 
customed fell to the members of the congregation when 
Mr. Eamsay was exhorting those who had choir badges 
to present themselves for seats on the stage. People 
caught their breath as he addressed them, telling them 
that they need not expect to wait and use their badges 
when the Tabernacle might he crowded, crawling up 
to .the platform for places when they could not get them 
elsewhere. 

After the talk to which they listened from Mr. 
Stuart, however, the words of Mr. Eamsay seemed as but 
the soft whisperings of a mother's love. 

ON THE SPEAKER'S PLATFORM. 

Among those on the speaker's platform were Bev. 
W. A. Nishet, of the Second Presbyterian Church, Pres- 
ident of the Ministers' Association; Bev. Bascom An- 
thony, of Trinity Church; Bev. Bd F. Cook, of Wesley 
Monumental; Bev. 0. S. Cook, of Grace Church; Rev. 
W. P. McCorkle, of the First Presbyterian; Bev. J. A. 
Smith, of Epworth Methodist Church; Bev. Dr. Quill- 



AND THUiNiDEEBOiLTiS, 11 

ian, of Madiison ; Eev. T. E. MoCarty, of Cedartown, 
and Eev. T. L. Grerdine, of Tennille. 

Eev. Mr. Anthony opened .the meeting, after several 
songs had been sung by the choir, led by Mr. Ea/msay. 
He first announced the collection would be taken up at 
each meeting. He said that he was glad to see that so 
many daughters and mothers had shown by their pres- 
ence that they were not afraid of being corrupted, and 
promised the congregation that, if a circus was to be 
seen, it would be a cleaner one than the last seen in the 
Park Extension. Eev. Mr. McCarty prayed for the 
success of the meetings, and invoked the .power of God 
for the crushing out of every saloon in Savannah. 

Then Mr. Stuart began his talk. While the preacher 
yet sits in his chair, one is impressed by his. personality, 
and the impression is favorable. Kindness and benevo- 
lence are reflected from every feature. Accentuated by 
a nose that he himself makes the subject of an occasion- 
al jest his face at once attracts attention. A strong sus- 
picion that the man has a world of humor about him 
enters the mind even before he begins to speak, and but 
little time is then required to (make the suspicion cer- 
tainty. There is power, too, in what he says, and pathos 
as well. Only two or three times did) Mr. Stuart seek 
to play upon the softer feelings. But each time he was 
successful, and his picture of the graduation exercises, 
when a boy did homage to his mother, made many a 
handkerchief steal to feminine eyes. 

HIS TALK ON JONES. 

Mr. Stuart preached a sermon, but prefaced it with 



12 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

an announcement about the meeting and Sam Jones, 
which, perhaps interested the congregation no less than 
did the sermon itself. With a determination to be un- 
derstood from the start, he jumped medias res, saying 
that there was a policeman present, and that he would 
act promptly when needed. "I shall watch for disturb- 
ances/' the preacher said. "When I see one, I shall di- 
rect the attention of the policeman to the disturber and 
he will grasp him by the nape of the neck and put him 
out O'f the building. None but the low and ill-bred 
would disturb a divine service anywiay. This is plain, 
but true. Besides, you don't have to come. Stay away 
if you do not propose to behave. 

^Some funny things have been said about Sam Jones 
and our prospective meetings in Savannah. It would 
make a dog laugh to get them together and have them 
served out. Sam Jones needs no defense, and don't any 
of you go away from here and say that I am defending 
him. I have been twelve years with Jones, preaching 
with him, slept with him, eaten with him, traveled with 
him, and divided money with him. I write him down 
as one of the cleanest, purest men in the land." 

Just here there was a novelty in Savannah religious 
services. Hands were clapped, and this style of ap- 
plause was frequent during the meeting. "I under- 
stand," continued Mr. Stuart, "that right on this 
ground they had a coochee-coochee (laughter) "Is that 
so?" (Turning to the ministers behind him). Mr. An- 
thony replied that the ministers had not seen it, but that 
it was so. "Some of the women in this -town saw it, 
though," said Mr. Stuart. 



AND THUNDEfRBOL/TS. 13 

TOO MUCH CUSSING. 

"I have heard more cussing to-day than I have in 
twelve months." "No," exclaimed a minister in sur- 
prise. "Yes," declared Mr. Stuart. "A man cussed at 
the table with me tonight. Yes, sir, I have heard it 
all through the streets. I passed a young man and two 
girls, and one of the girls ripped out an oath. Ain't it 
funny?" and the way he asked the question made his 
hearers think it was, to judge from the way they laughed. 

"We are here in the interest of good men and women, 
of boys and girls," said the evangelist, "and Sam Jones 
and George iStuart will fight only for them. If you are 
among those I have mentioned, don't worry. We are not 
after you. And remember I am not here to defend Mr. 
Jones. The meetings were not projected for that pur- 
pose. The meetings will continue until they close. We 
don't know when that will be. We preached three weeks 
in Atlanta. The last night Jones addressed the crowd 
that was packed and jammed into a great building, 
while, standing in a carriage at the intersection of four 
streets, I talked to people who were crowded far back 
into the thoroughfares." 

THE EVANGELIST'S SERMON. 

Mr. Stuart's sermon was based upon the strength of 
character of Daniel, whom he considers one of the 
greatest men of sacred or profane history. The preacher 
selected Daniel as his theme, he said, because it is up- 
lifting and improving for a congregation to be brought 
in touch with such a character. "Evil communications 



14 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

corrupt good manners and evil associations debase good 
morals/' Mr. Stuart quoted. "One cannot remain forty 
minutes with an evil man without being harmed, nor 
can one remain forty minutes with a good man with- 
out being helped." 

The character of Daniel, full of purpose and devoted 
to certain principles regarded as right, was commended 
as a standard for young people, the preacher voicing the 
need there is for young men and young women of pur- 
pose land determination who mean and strive to be some- 
thing. The temptations that assailed Daniel «as the 
choice of following his own or a strange God became 
necessary were detailed by Mr. iStuart, and in them 
were found analogies to the temptations of the present 
day. 

'Speaking of the practice of drinking, Mr. Stuart 
said : "Would to God the day may come when the man 
who will take a drink or swear cannot even be elected 
constable. These hard-swearing, hard-drinking, old of- 
fice holders ought to be relegated to private life. Every 
official in Savannah, if it is in his power to prevent the 
lawlessness that prevails, is leading a perjured life. (Ap- 
plause). 'Savannah is as dirty a gambling town as there 
is on the face of this earth. Even children gamble on 
their way to and from school. There is everything from 
marbles up to a progressive euchre. I should as soon 
play seven-up at $5.00 a game as to play euchre for a 
cut glass vase, (dwelling upon the exaggerated pronun- 
ciation of the word). Ah, how honor is needed in 
America." 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 15 

HERE FOR A FIGHT. 

EVANGELISTS STUART AND JONES IN SAVANNAH FOR THAT 
PURPOSE, SO SAID REV. MR. STUART. 

Talked of Temperance before crowded Taberna- 
cle. Says that visit of himself and Sam Jones will 
be an epoch in Savannah. Hope to make an im- 
pression that will last till Gabriel blows his trum- 
pet. Tells of the black clouds that threaten Amer- 
ica and charges them all to the liquor business. 
Amuses the crowd by telling jokes on MioKinley 
and on the divorce laws of Chicago. 

Rev. Gorge R. Stuart delivered his address on tem- 
perance at the Tabernacle yesterday afternoon before 
3,000 people. It was a strong plea for prohibition, and 
filled with the characteristic illustrations, both of speech 
and gesture, that have brought the evangelist so promi- 
nently to the front and made him the co-worker of Rev. 
Sam 1 Jones. That the address was to be a characteristic 
one could be known almost in the opening remark. 

After a brief introduction the evangelist told his au- 
dience that ihe was entering into a fight and that he 
wanted them to keep quiet and hear him. "Hold your 
mouth, or take it away," he said. The people took him 
at his word and followed the first part of his admoni- 
tion, for except when some remark drew forth a laugh 
or when some sentiment was cheered^ he was heard 
throughout the hour and a quarter or more in whidh he 
talked, with absolute attention. 



16 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

"Tonight/"' said the speaker, "begins a series of meet- 
ings which are to be an epoch in your city; meetings of 
which the influence, I trust, will be here when Gabriel 
shall blow his horn, for I am here this afternoon to 
make a sentiment on the greatest question that is now 
before the American people." The speaker read as his 
text, Hab. 2 :12. "Woe to him that buildeth a town 
with blood and establisheth a city by iniquity/' The pro- 
noun "him" stands for a noun, he said, and we may as 
well supply it with the noun in this case and say "Woe 
unto Savannah that buildeth a town with blood and es- 
tablisheth a city by iniquity." 

"These," he continued, "are the words not of George 
Stuart, but of God. I come to you as an American citi- 
zen, and if I can but put one half right on this issue I 
shall not have spent the afternoon in vain." 

SPENT YEABS WITH JONES. 

"I have spent years traveling about the country with 
my co-worker, Sam Jones, who has stood for right, and 
right only, all of the time, and the more I see the coun- 
try, the more I am convinced that it is marching to the 
tune of this great book, the Bible." "But," he continued, 
"there are many big black clouds that overhang us, and 
all can be traced to the whiskey barrel or the beerkeg. 

"The first cloud that I shall consider is the cloud of 
anarchy. Many think it a little cloud showing here and 
there, but it is growing broader and deeper and more 
dangerous every year. In Chicago, after the anarchist 
riot, the judge who tried the cases against them said 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 17 

that every witness that deposed in the case had come 
from in a saloon, back of a saloon, or over a saloon. But 
I've no time more to spend on this subject, and so I will 
tell you of another cloud that overhangs you, the cloud 
of mobism, <and I want to say now 'here's one American 
citizen everlastingly opposed to monism.' It's all due 
to the saloon, and there is no excuse for it. In the first 
place the mob always gets the man that has no money 
and no political friends and who would', in consequence, 
be punished anyway. 

"The mob is the result of the saloons and just as soon 
as you get near enough to & mob to smell of it you smell 
whiskey. In 1896 there were more men and women 
killed by mob law than were executed by order of all the 
courts in the land put together. To destroy the mob it 
is necessary to destroy the saloons, for that the one is 
the cause of the other can he seen in all cases where 
there is a danger from such a gathering such as in 'Gal- 
veston, and recently in Jacksonville, when this fact was 
so well recognized that the first cry of those that feared 
the mob was "Close the saloons." 

POLITICS A CLOUD. 

'''Politics" he said, "is another of the clouds that over- 
hang. "I am out of politics," he said, "because I don't 
want to mix any politics with my religion, but I would 
like to get a little religion in politics. What this coun- 
try needs" he continued, "is 'Christianity and decency 
in politics, and it is my hope some day to see ian honest 
White ballot in the hands of every honest American." 



18 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

This wish was cheered by the audience. "Whiskey/' 
continued Mr. Stuart, "has got politics by the throat, 
it's got Savannah by the throat, and it's got all the oth- 
er cities of the country by the throat. Do you know/' 
he went on, "there is a saloon in the Capitol at Wash- 
ington, and there is not a legislature in this country 
with enough backbone to kick it out. 

"But, I tell you," he said, "the age of crises is com- 
ing." 

Infamous divorce laws were characterized by the 
speaker as the next cloud that he wished to speak of. 
"Do you know," he said, "that if a man ha.s a crazy wife 
he can get a law through the legislature so that after 
five years he can marry again. Eighty per cent of these 
infamous decrees are due to the saloon business. I am 
in favor of getting married iand staying married until 
this book (tapping the Bible) says that we must part. 
We are entirely too careless about this matter; why it 
is said that in Chicago thy are issuing marriage certifi- 
cates with divorce coupons, and that when a man wishes 
to leave his wife all he has to do is to tear off a coupon, 
say 'good-bye Sal', and skip out. The laws of the land, 
influenced by the iniquitous liquor traffic have made 
marriage almost play." 

Speaking of the Epworth League, Mr. Stuart said, 
"That its charity and help department, the feeding and 
clothing of poor people, had his highest commendation. 
My idea of Christianity," he said, "is to take the Bible 
in one hand, a pone of bread in the other and a pair of 
breeches under the arm. The world needs something 



AND THIMDEKBOLTS. 19 

taken of this book and woven into action. Discussing 
the work of the league in assisting the poor, he said, 
further, that most of the poverty and distress were 
caused by drink; that the liquor traffic was like a huge 
giant that threw into the stream of want and misery 
countless people. I'm sick of and tired of pulling peo- 
ple out of this stream, he said, "What we ought to do is 
to kill the giant and thus put an end to people being in 
the need of rescue." 

A FALSE PROSPERITY. 

The speaker then took up t)he discussion of the pres- 
ent prosperity of the country. "It's a false prosperity," 
he said, "All caused by the war spirit that imbues all na- 
tions and causes them to make guns, build ships, make 
wagons, and make other things needed for war, thus fur- 
nishing a market for much material and plenty of work 
for men." After discussing some of the questions of 
finance, which he said he had heard discussed in Wash- 
ington, he evidently feared that h e had led his hearers 
to believe .that it was done in a spirit antagnostic to the 
administration, and so hastened to tell them that he was 
not a Democrat, "Thank 'God." 

He said that the liquor traffic was the cause of all the 
country's financial troubles. The politicians say that it 
is the tariff, or the national banks, or some other cause, 
but the real cause is whiskey. Here he quoted statis- 
tics to show that all the currency of the government, or 
all the money in the possession of the national banks, 
would not pay the liquor bill of the country for one year 



20 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

because of its enormous size, $1,400,000,000.00. He 
gave additional figures explaining the cost of the whis- 
key to the manufacturer, and to the consumer, and show- 
ed where the difference in the price goes. He paid his 
compliments to President McKinley for his stand or 
lack of stand on this question, and then asked the audi- 
ence if they had heard he told them 'Because Hanna had 
to make it up every morning.' 

Mr. Stuart's next attack was on the gamblers, wihom 
he described as 200,000 gentlemen who were able to 
wear diamonds and yet had velvety hands because they 
did net work. That they too might be charged to the 
whiskey evil, he said, could be seen from the fact that 
they were always to be found in, over, or back of a sa- 
loon. 

A PICTURE OF CONDITIONS. 

He then drew what he termed a 'heme picture, con- 
ditions that exist in Savannah, in which he estimated 
the number of saloons, the number of men that patron- 
ized them, the money spent and the good that it could 
do spent otherwise. Using one case as an example, he 
said that even after the saloon had ruined a man it had 
no use for him, and would not even give him employ- 
ment. L T sing the subject of this illustration as being 
interrogated as to the kind of work he was fit for, the 
speaker made him lanswer that he wasn't fit for anything 
unless he could be elected to Council, or something. He 
explained later, however, that this illustration did not 
apply to all councils, because some of the best men that 
he had ever known had occupied such positions. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 21 

Discussing the ultimate fate of the drunkard, he said 
that he was doomed to hell, but that he would not go 
alone, for to the same place would be sent those that 
had made him what he was. 

Referring to Mr. Jones, he said that both of them 
were here for the purpose of raising a fight, and asked 
all those that were with them for prohibition to draw 
and wave their handkerchiefs. There were but few that 
refused the invitation. 



22 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



THE OPENING EVENT. 

JONES TO THOUSANDS. TABERNACLE FILLED AND SUR- 
ROUNDED BY HIS HEARERS. ESTIMATED THEM AT 
TEN THOUSAND. 

A strong talk that offended none. — Mr. Jones 
preached the first of his Savannah sermons and 
great crowd was distinctly impressed. — Straight 
gospel was preached. — Though here and there Mr. 
Jones threw in a jest or a jibe, with malice towards 
none. — Outlined his position. 

Thousands thronged the tabernacle in the Park Ex- 
tension and encircled it last night, when Eev. Sam Jones 
preached for the first time during the series of meetings 
in Savannah. Mr. Jones himself estimated the crowd 
at 10,000. Perhaps it did not fall short of that number. 
He anticipated a smaller number and said so during his 
talk. The crowd probably numbered about 7,000. Eev. 
W. A. Nisbet, President of the Ministerial Association, 
said the building was constructed for the accommoda- 
tion of 4,000 people, though it probably held more than 
that number. There were scarcely as many outside as 
inside. 

The great majority of those gathered to the service 
seemed to have been drawn by their fervent admiration 
of the preacher and their desire to profit from the ser- 
vice. Others were there through curiosity. On both 
classes the preacher made a distinct impression . 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 23 

No better conducted cTowd of such proportions was 
ever gathered in Savannah, and this, despite the mur- 
murs that had been heard against Mr. Jones, and the 
ill-feeling that was undoubtedly entertained by some. 
And it was probably what Mr. Jones said it was, the 
largest religious gathering in Savannah since there has 
been a building of the place standing. 

That the gathering was with the preacher and that 
it was impressed by his talk, could have been shown by 
nothing more strongly than by the response to his ap- 
peal at the close of the service, when he called upon ev- 
ery man and woman who wished to respond to the love 
that is in G-od's heart for them and who want the meet- 
ings to be productive of good to 'Savannah and good to 
themselves rise. From a seat upon the platform, it 
seemed that, as one mighty body, the entire congrega- 
tion rose. 

An incident of the meeting was the trouble with the 
electric lights. Only for a brief period did they shed 
a brilliance. One went out after a bit, and the others 
offered but a lame apology for their presence. Flutter- 
ing and flickering, rapping, sputtering they seemed upon 
the verge of retiring from the meeting. Mr. Jones was 
speaking at the time. He asked everybody to remain 
seated and perfectly quiet if the lights should go out. 
A kerosene lamp was at hand and was lighted and 
placed upon the platform. Apparently seeing that they 
would not leave the tabernacle in utter darkness, the 
arc lights ceased their sputtering and got upon their 
good behavior, seemingly to the no little relief of the 



24 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

ministers who sat back of the speaker on the platform. 

SINGING LED BY TILLMAN. 

The choir of the night before had been reinforced by 
many voices, and more than 100 poured foriih sacred 
melody. The singing was led by Mr. Charles Tillman, 
who has long been associated with Mr. Jones in a musical 
capacity. Hymn after hymn was sung before the preach- 
ing began and the warmth and fervor of the singing 
went deep to many hearts. 

A prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. W. F. Quillian of 
Madison, Ga., and shortly afterward Rev. Mr. Jones 
and his co-adjutor Rev. Mr. Stuart, appeared on the 
platform, being greeted with applause from the congre- 
gation. It was the first sight a great many had had of 
Mr. Jones, and it was with no little curiosity that they 
had a good look at the famed evangelist. They saw a 
man of about 145 pounds in weight, clad in a dark grey 
suit. Fifty-four years sit none too lightly upon Mr. 
Jones, and there is a liberal sprinkling of grey among 
what was the jet black of his hair and long, drooping 
mustache. His figure, though, is well knit and erect, 
bearing up well under the ills with which Mr. Jones 
says it is beset. 

After an introduction by Mr. Nisbet, who, hitting at 
the Aldermen who had expressed themselves upon the 
matter of the use of the Park Extension, said that ten 
days ago he would never have thought that it was nec- 
essary to introduce such a man as Rev. Sam Jones to a 
Savannah audience. Mr. Jones got in action, and an- 
other opportunity for a survey of the man was afforded. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 25 

Summed up, it showed no ramping in delivery, a flow of 
language that was seldom broken by hesitation to grasp 
just the word required, a well modulated, even voice, 
carrying well to the confines of the building, a wit and 
humor that evoked a laugh whenever the demands of ef- 
fective speaking seemed to show it needed, and ia vigor- 
ous force that held and swayed the congregation. 

Many, probably, were expecting some of the sensa- 
tional speeches for which the preacher is celebrated. In 
that expectancy, however^ they were disappointed. Mr. 
Jones had his joke and thrust a few of his jibes, but his 
talk, in the main, was confined to what ministers denom- 
inated as pure, hard doctrine and gospel, — the soul- 
saving sort. Love was the preacher's theme, and it was 
handled with the art of a master. There could be no 
gainsaying that, even by those opposed to the preacher 
and yet hearing his words. 

WHAT ME. JONES SAID. 

Opening with an exhortation to his hearers to re- 
main perfectly quiet, in order that his physical infirmi- 
ties might not prevent his making his voice heard 
throughout the building, Mr. Jones announced his text 
as John 3 :16. "For God so loved the world that he 
gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in 
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

"I thank 'God/' the preacher said, "that it has been 
my privilege to preach to so many thousands, but more 
than all I thank Him for this text. I can reach but 
comparatively few with my preaching, but the printed 



26 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

word, with such a glorious message, can go throughout 
the world, proclaiming the salvation that is open and 
free to those who will but accept the love that was 
evinced by so great a sacrifice as that. Not to America 
alone, not to Europe, is the love of God extended, for 
He so loved the world. All of its millions of people are 
included in His love. He loves the most abandoned sin- 
ner as well as He does the most spiritual saint. I can 
go farther and say that He loves the sinner more," and 
the speaker related the story of the Good Shepherd who 
went out after his one lost sheep. 

"God's love is eternal. It knows no limitations. He 
can love a man while he is serving Him and He can love 
a man when he has fallen into the lowest depth of 
degradation and sin. He can love a man when he is in 
hell as well as when he is in heaven. God is the mother 
as well as the father. He has all the mother's love and 
a great deal more. When father and mother have ceased 
to love a son, God loves him still. Never a man in hell 
was put there by God because he did not love him. Love 
cannot save though it can pity and suffer and love and 
bless. It is only the blood of the Lamb that can cleanse 
and save. Yes, a mother's love is great, but it is but the 
infinitesimal part of the heart of God poured into the 
heart of the woman/' 

Here Mr. Jones, dwelling on the love that grows 
stronger when a loved one seems to be sinking, said that 
he sometimes tells his wife that it seems to him that she 
loved him more when he was drunken, worthless and 
unregenerate than now, whereupon she makes answer: 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 27 

"Well, old fellow, it seemed to me that you needed it 
more then." 

Then the preacher drew a (picture of a home made 
wretched by drink, portraying the love of the wife for 
the husband, which despite the debauchery to which he 
had sunk, still abided in all its wiarmth. That love, he 
said, was a little of the nature of God, so how great must 
•be the love of God. Then he told of the love that is 
borne him by his dog and his horse. 

Even with his frailties, he is able to inspire love 
in his animals and make them eager to serve him in 
any way. Lower than the brutes, he said, must be men 
when they are not stirred by God's love and do not arise 
to serve him. It is a helpful love too, he said, that is 
needed. And such is God's love, which is extended, if 
it would only be accepted, to ten thousand wrecked and 
ruined men right here in Savannah. 

A WORD ABOUT INTEMPERANCE. 

"Sometime ago I was in Robertson county, Ten- 
nessee, upon a temperance campaign. I have no regard 
for a preacher who never made a temperance speech. 
The devil is bragging on such a preacher. I was speak- 
ing to just such a crowd as this, and by the way, I am 
glad to see such a crowd. It is the biggest that was 
ever seen in Savannah for a religious gathering. That 
is the truth. There are ten thousand people here, but I 
do not doubt that the papers tomorrow will say there 
were three thousand. As I was saying, though, this 
meeting was up in Robertson county, where they make 
that liquor that I bet many of you old red-nosed rascals 



28 LIOHTtfraO FLASHES 

have been drunk on one thousand times. There was a 
poor man there, gone to the dogs from drink, ragged, 
unkempt, despondent and without a friend. He came to 
me after the meeting, and told me of his troubles. He 
had been touched by the talk, and wanted my sympathy. 
1 gave him more, a suit of clothes, rigging him out 
from hat to heel, and I told him "There is a little sallow- 
faced Georgia preacher who will stick to you till his 
heels fly up/ and the man got a school to teach and 
lived happily with his re-united children. 

"And it was not long before a merchant invited me 
into his store and; asked me to accept a $75.00 suit of 
clothes. I told him that I would if it would be any ac- 
commodation to him. That outfit for the school-teacher 
had cost me $30.00, so you see there was where I had 
made $45.00 by speculation. I tell you I have made 
thousands of dollars by speculating in niggers and poor 
white folks." And then Mr. Jones gave some of the in- 
stances in which he had cast his bread upon the waters. 

WILL KEEP FLIES OFF. 

"They call me a liar, a mountebank and a black- 
guard," said Mr. Jones, "but I do not care if I can do 
work like that," and he referred to instances he had 
enumerated of redemption he had wrought from the ser- 
vitude of drink and the devil. "I shall take the deeds 
and the words, and proud, indeed, will I be if I can lay 
them before the feet of Christ and let him be the judge. 
I am no man's enemy. There is not a saloon-keeper or 
a gambler in Savannah for whom I would not pray for 
as high a place in heaven as I would wish to fall to 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 29 

those most clear to me. I come to this city with, naught 
in my heart against anyone. Even if anyone tries to lick 
me I won't mind, but I'll promise you one thing, Bud, 
I'll try to keep the flies off you while you're at it. 
('Great laughter). You think I am pretty tough now, 
Bud, but you ought to have known me once. Why, there 
was a time when I wouldn't have been in Savannah this 
long before I would have begun to paint the town red. 
That was a favorite color of mine in those days, but I 
have gotten religion now. I know I have got it. I was 
on the spot at that time. God will forgive a sinner. 
You can get religion and keep it, and a lot of you fel- 
lows out there ought to be getting it right now. Why, 
your wife would have to call in the neighbors to identify 
you." 

The preacher then closed with his 'appeal to the con- 
gregation, after which prayer was offered by Dr. Quill- 
ian and the congregation was dismissed with benedic- 
tion from Mr. Stuart. 

An evidence of the interest in the Jones' meetings is 
that many of the foreign sea. captains in port attended 
last night. Among them was the captain of a schooner 
which cleared and was expected to sail 'Saturday. A 
Morning News reporter asked the captain yesterday 
what was the trouble and why he had not sailed. 

"I just thought I'd wait and see what Sam Jones 
had to offer," he replied. 

Along the river and among the shipping there is as 
much interest in Mr. Jones and his meetings as there is 
in other sections of the city. 



30 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



SPOKE ON OPPORTUNITY. 

REV. G. R. STUART'S SERVICES ATTENDED BY MANY 
COLORED PEOPLE. 

Rev. George R. Stuart spoke at the afternoon service 
of the Jones- Stuart meeting. Rev. Sam Jones, who had 
arrived but an hour or two before, was at the Taberna- 
cle, and occupied a conspicuous place on the platform, 
but he did not take any part in the services. Just be- 
fore the meeting began he arrived, in the company of 
Mr. 'Stuart. A slightly audible wave of excitement went 
over the congregation as he was seen, but it had no 
effect on him, apparently. He ascended the steps of the 
platform, was met and greeted by a number of the min- 
isters who had arrived before him, and then sat among 
them, where he remained an interested auditor through- 
out the service. 

The meeting was opened by the reading of a scrip- 
tural lesson by Rev. W. A. Nisbit, followed by prayer 
by Rev. S. W. Walker. Then came Mr. Stuart, but 
before he began his sermon he told the people that he 
wanted order and intended to have it. He asked ithe 
people lounging on the edge of the railing of the Ta- 
bernacle, of whom there were quite a number, either 
to come in and be seated or to be quiet. He stated 
also that he wanted it understood that the Tabernacle 
was not a nursery, and he asked that persons with crying 
children retire. To his first remark on this subject of 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 31 

quietness one young man took exception because he 
thought he had been singled out. He stood up and 
began to stell the speaker his grievance, but was told in 
short order that he was no more than anybody else; that 
if he was quiet it was all right, and that if he wasn't 
quiet the speaker knew what to do abou/t it, and didn't 
need any suggestions from him. The man subsided. 

Mr. Stuart preached on "Opportunity" and drew 
his text from Gal. 6 :10 : "As we have therefore oppor- 
tunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto ithem 
who are the household of faith." 

The sermon was as characteristic as the two given the 
day before. In none of his sermons is there theolog- 
ical hair-splitting, or dialectic subtleties. He has cer- 
tain plain points that he wishes to make ; he puts them 
in a way that can't be misunderstood and then exem- 
plifies and impresses them by copious anecdotes, ofiten 
humorous, always to the point. 

Yesterday in speaking of the opportunity of wives 
and mothers to help husbands and sons, he said, "Were 
I the devil — which, thank God, I'm not — and had but 
one chance to capture a man's soul, I'd sttake that chance 
on giving him a godless, silly, frivolous wife, and if I 
couldn't damn him with that, I'd quit. If I wanted 
to save a man I'd give him a faithful, Christian, con- 
scientious, three-hundred-and^sixty-five days-out-of-the- 
year wife, or mother, and if I couldn'it save him with 
that, I'd quit." 

He said that all people were divided into "Opportu- 
nity takers," "Opportunity makers," and "Opportunity 



32 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

breakers," and under the head of each of these classes 
he told what could be done, citing cases in his personal 
experience to enforce his arguments. 

Before he closed the service he said that this series 
of meetings had been sent to Savannah by God to pre- 
pare somebody for the ordeal of death and still more 
awful ordeal of facing the great and final judgment 
seat; he advised his hearers to see to it that they be 
prepared. 

At this service the Tabernacle was probably half filled 
by white people. Just before the service began several 
hundred colored people were given seats to 'the south 
of the speaker's platform. They stayed throughout the 
service and were among the most attentive listeners. 

On account of the expected large crowd more benches 
were put in the Tabernacle yesterday, thus materially 
increasing the seating capacity. 



AMD THUNDERBOLTS. 33 



GAVE THEM GOSPEL. 

SENSATIONALISM IS NO FEATURE OF SAM JONES* SERMON. 
TABERNACLE AGAIN FILLED. 

While the overflow stood all around the building 
the crowd of last night was almost as great as that 
of the night before. Hundreds went forward to the 
platform to grasp the hand of Sam Jones and Mr. 
■Stuart. Mr. Jones declares he is not preaching for 
money. Will give Savannah free gospel if it is 
wanted. Greatly pleased with the success of his 
meetings thus far. 



Again the Rev. Sam Jones filled the Park Taberna- 
cle, not only, as on the night before, was the great 
building thronged but crowds stood all around it. That 
Savannah is stirred by the meetings cannot be doubted, 
for the people are turning out for them in crowds that 
seldom appear for any gathering. 

Mr. Jones did not localize his gospel to any great 
extent. He preached straight religion, seldom branch- 
ing off into incident, anecdote or jest. What he said 
was effectual, for it resulted in hundreds going up to 
the platform, at the preacher's invitation^ to grasp the 
hand of Mr. Jones and Mr. Stuart. 

The results of the meeting seemed everything that 
the evangelists and the Savannah ministers, who have 
identified with the meetings, could have wished. The 
earnestness of Mr. Jones had gone to many hearts, and 



34 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

they felt moved by the Spirit of which he told them 
and drifted in streams to the platform, upheld in their 
determination by the strength that was newly theirs. 

Lights poured their steady stream upon the congre- 
gation, and the disturbing and disconcerting threats 
they made of disappearing the night before were not re- 
peated. Turbulent small boys, too, were held in better 
check and they did not get in with their dabs of tar and 
their pins. Two or three of the ministers were upon the 
scene early and took steps to prevent the urchins from 
being quite so much in disagreeable evidence. 

PLEASED WITH THE START. 

Mr. Jones began his remarks by expressing the 
pleasure it had given him to see the meetings start off 
so successfully. Never, he said, had he seen the work 
begin with greater evidence that the Spirit of God is 
a/broad among the people. Great success for the meet- 
ings was predicted, the preacher saying that he hoped 
and believed that they would be the means of bringing 
many of the unregenerate souls in Savannah into a pro- 
fession of their faith in the Lord. 

"I can make from $150 to $200 a night on the lec- 
ture platform," said Mr. Jones, "and I am not preach- 
ing for money. If that were my policy it would have 
been only necessary for me to glance at the hats that I 
saw brought in from the collection last night to have 
made me take the first train out of Savannah. I 
wouldn't be in the preaching business if I were looking 
for the best way to make money. I might become a 



AMD THLWDE&BOLTS. 35 

lawyer, like ifoe preacher who, when asked for his rea- 
son for having given up the pulpit for the bar, declared 
that people were willing to give more to save their necks 
than to save their souls. Money won't be mentioned by 
me during these meetings. If iSavannah wants free gos- 
pel, why, I am the man to give it." 

THE LORD HAS CALLED. 

Mr. Jones took his text from Proverbs 1 :24-26. 
"Because I have called, and ye refused ; I have stretched 
out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at 
naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof." 
"'When you feel the spirit of good stirring within you 
during these meetings," Mr. J ones exhorted his hearers, 
"give heed to it. Do not refuse it. Don't ignore the 
outstretched hand. Here in this book o<f God you see on 
every page an invitation to go to the Lord. Don't re- 
fuse it. Don't turn your back on the book. No safer 
guide for human action and human conduct can be 
found. I have never had a pang of conscience, but it 
has come from some violation of the injunctions that 
are set forth in this book. I thank 'God for the Bible. I 
commend it to the man in his trials, to the woman in 
her sorrows, and to the boy and to the girl in their weak- 
ness. 

"And I thank God for the preachers. I have heard 
hundreds of them. I have heard them in this country 
preaching from the finest churches of the finest cities 
and from the pulpits of the most humble little places of 
worship; I have heard them in Mexico and I have heard 



36 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

them among the Indians, but never yet have I heard 
one preach who has not told enough of the great truth of 
heaven to save thousands of sinners. There is no con- 
flict between the evangelist and the pastor. The pastor 
sows and the evangelist helps in the reaping. Year 
after year the pastor sows in plenty the seeds, and then 
the evangelist comes to helip him in the glorious harvest. 
Then the sower and the reaper rejoice together, and God 
grant that they may rejoice over thousands of souls 
saved in Savannah. 

"If one preacher should take his stand to lift his voice 
and give the word of the Lord to all wftio might hear 
him; if another should stand so that he might be heard 
by those beyond the reach of the voice of the first; if 
}et another should take his stand beyond the second, 
and so on, there would be a string of preachers reaching 
all around the eanth. There are enough preachers in 
the world for this, and they might so preach to all the 
people of the world. And I believe that the day will 
come when all the people will be reached by the Word, 
and that they will accept 'the truth and be saved. 0, 
what a privilege I would esteem it to be the preacher 
to speiak the words to save this last sinner. Thank God 
for religion, and may it appeal to every ruined character 
and spoiled life in Savannah. 

PREACHED IN AN ENGINE CAB. 

"Years ago I was preaching ito great crowds in Nash- 
ville. When I was leaving the city I was approached 
by the conductor of the train, who asked me to go upon 
the engine and see the engineer, who wanted to talk 



AM) THUNDERBOLTS. 37 

to me. I said I would go, and I climbed on the engine. 
The engineer told me that he had been touched by my 
talk; that I had got mighty close to him when I spoke 
of the power for good that is sometimes exerted by the 
sorrows thart; are visited upon us, "and I preached there 
in that cab to that engineer, with that engine speeding 
along at forty-five miles an hour, and I touched his 
heart. Oh, to God that I might get close to everyone 
in this great crowd tonight as I got close to that engi- 
neer. You have heard preachers use better language 
than I, but you never saw one who would go closer to 
the gates of hell to save a man." 

'Here Mtr. Jones drifted into a relation of his own 
experiences and redemption that had come to him 
through the promise made to a dying father, thirty 
years ago. That promise he has kept, and be said he 
stood before the people to show what God's providence 
could do to lift a man who 'had fallen 'so low as he had. 
Many eyes were wet with tears as he spoke of himself 
and the powers ithat had come to his rescue. 

"I would like to see 1,000 young men," said Mr. 
Jones, "start a new life tonight in Savannah. They 
are beset on every hand by sinners and pitfalls. Wick- 
edness in many shapes stalks about them, and on every 
band it is beckoning them to their ruin. I know of 
what I speak, for many of the young men of the city 
have sought me in my room and asked me to help them. 
They have told me of the dreadful temptations that as- 
sail them from every quarter, of the dreadful hotbeds 
of vice that stand in their way." 



38 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

Then the preacher related a touching story of a fam- 
ily of wealth and prominence by which he was enter- 
tained in one of the middle states. The father, mother 
and daughter were earnest Christians, but ithe son was 
abandoned to debauchery and vice. The story of the 
redemption of the young man and the joy that was car- 
ried to the hearts of his father, mother and sister, as 
told by Mr. Jones, went straight to the hearts of many, 
and again many eyes were wet. It was the saving grace 
of God, directed through Mr. Jones, that had wrought 
the change in the young man, the preacher said, and he 
asked if that was not needed in (Savannah to save its 
young men from ruin. From several sides, "Yes" was 
answered. 

AN INCENTIVE TO LAUGHTER. 

Only once during the sermon was there laughter. 
That was when Mr. Jones told of a lecture delivered by 
some distinguished scientist. The preacher had at- 
tended and had expressed his regret that the lecturer 
had dug up more snakes than he could ever kill by the 
dissemination of any such scientific facts as he alleged. 
The scientist had wanted to know if (anyone believed 
that God had picked up a piece of mud, breathed upon 
it, and created man, he had stumbled over an apple and 
fallen into a whiskey barrel. Certain it was, Mr. Jones 
said, that God, years ago, picked up the dirtieat piece 
of mud in 'Bartow county, breathed some of his spirit 
of saving grace upon it, and sent it forth as a man to 
do his work, and to seek to save hies people. This, at 
once self-abasement and self-laudation, shame of his 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 39 

former condition .and pride in his mission as a worker 
for ithe Lord, touched his hearers, and the laughter that 
had marked the few words that had succeeded was 
changed to applause. 

Mr. Jones closed his talk by asking all who wanted 
to be prayed for and who wanted the meetings to be 
successful, to stand up, whereupon a great mass of the 
congregation arose. 

'Then he called upon all who would to come forward 
to the platform, grasp hie hand and show to all assem- 
pled beneath the roof of the Tabernacle that they were 
not ashamed that they were on the side of Christianity. 
Streams surged up through the aisles, all eager to give 
testimony for which the preacher asked. 



40 LIGHTNING FL.AISH.EiS 



STUARTS MORAL DANCE. 

"preacher that attends dances and theater not 
fit to preach/'' 

The afternoon Jones-Stuart meeting yesterday was 
conducted by Evangelist Stuart. The meeting was 
well attended despite the threatening weather, and, as 
on the day before, quite a large number of colored peo- 
ple were among his attentive hearers. He preached 
from the text John 15 :8 : "Herein is my father glorified 
rthat ye hear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples." 

"The best of Christianity," the preacher said, 
"is the fruit that is borne. Christianity is 
practical and iGod is going to judge us 
practically." Following this line of thought 'the 
speaker said that God is going to give each 
person a separate test, even in accordance with the 
spirit of the text, and that the gate of heaven is only 
so wide that a man or woman that is wholly clean can 
get through. "Live right," he said, "and this old world 
will see it; you can't argue down a pure and holy life. 
In impressing this thought upon his 'hearers he told 
stories of conversions that had been accomplished 
through the sole influence of seeing an example of what 
a clean and Christian life had done for one man. 

In speaking of the efforts of some people to bring 
others into the church, he warned such workers to see 
to it ithat they themselves led clean and Christian lives 
before they seek to show others the way. "The life of 



AND THUNDBRBOiLTiS. 41 

the one who doesn't lead such a life," he said, "speaks 
louder to those he seeks to help than do his words of 
exhortation. 

In this connection ithe speaker told plainly that in 
his opinion the church and the world could not be 
mixed up. He illustrated it by an anecdote of one of 
his pastorates. It was in 'Chattanooga, he said, that he 
was in charge of a "high falutin' " church in which 
were card players and dancers. «So, he said, he deter- 
mined himself to give a dance and invited Ms congre- 
gation to it, and accordingly told them on Sunday morn- 
ing of his purpose, and explained that it would be the 
best possible dance that could be given. One of the 
objections to dances, he told them, was the place that 
some were held in, another, the kind of people that 
sometimes attended; a third, the improper clothing; 
another, because of the late hours; and still another, 
because of the chaperones. 

To this dance, he told them, none of the objections 
would apply, because he intended to have it in the par- 
sonage, invite only ministers and their wives, that they 
would be modestly and properly clothed, that the dance 
would end at 9 o'clock, and that each of the ladies would 
be chaperoned by her own husband. In every way, be 
explained, it would be the finest dance ever proposed 
in history. In an innovation like this, he felt, however, 
that he ought to have the consensus of opinion of all 
the congregation, and, therefore, he asked that an ex- 
pression of opinion be made, for all that favored it to 
rise. 



42 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

Nobody rising, the speaker explained to them that he 
understood why, that they realized >that the beet dance, 
the most select, is wrong in itself, and, therefore, they, 
knowing this, it was his intention to turn out of the 
church every person that again danced, or who allowed 
her children to dance. As he concluded the anecdote, 
there was a loud and fervent "'Amen" from the colored 
people, while the white people sait mum. This drew 
from Eev. Sam Jones the remark that nobody but the 
negroes said "Amen." Mr. Stuart replied that the 
others might not have answered, but ithat deep down in 
their hearts they knew him to be right. 

In continuing on the subject he said that the preacher 
that would go to dances, to the theater and to card 
parties was not fit to preach. "He isn't fit to," he was 
saying, when Eev. Sam Jones again broke in with 
"You'll be called vulgar if you don't look out." 

Continuing, he warned parents about letting >their 
children have their own way because, "Being young they 
ought to have a good time?" or "To let them sow their 
wild oats." "Children sow itheir wild oats?" he said, 
"and the parents reap them." 

At the conclusion of his address Mr. 'Stuart asked 
those that desired prayer to come forward, and his in- 
vitation was accepted by fifty or more, men, women and 
children. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 43 



GONE TO OARTERSVILLE. 

REV. SAM JONES WILL RETURN TOMORROW WITH MRS. 

JONES. 

Rev. Sam Jones lefit last night for Oartersville to meet 
Mrs. Jones, who will return with him tomorrow morn- 
ing. Mrs. Jones is not in good health and didn't care 
to make the trip to 'Savannah alone. During their stay 
in Savannah Rev. and Mrs. Jones and Rev. Mr. Stuart 
will reside at the DeSato. 

Today's services at the Tabernacle will be conducted 
by Rev. Mr. Stuart, Mr. Jones, taking charge of the 
meetings again tomorrow. 



44 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



EVILS BEGIN AT HOMiE. 

RET. G. R. STUART TELLS OP GAMBLING AND DRINKING. 
HEARD BY CROWDS OF PEOPLE. 

Rev Sam Jones and Mrs. Jones will arrive to- 
day. "Gambling's gambling, whether at home or 
in a den."— "The Man That Gambles is a Thief at 
Heart." Nominal Members of the Church Held 
up as "Devil's Decoys." — 'Story of the Educated 
Turkey and its Application — Many Penitents went 
forward and asked for prayers. Numbers of men 
voluntarily promised to drink no more. — Rev. Mr. 
•Stuart thinks it a "great meeting." 

In the absence of the Rev. Sam Jones, Rev. G. R. 
Stuart preached last night in the Park Tabernacle, al- 
though he had conducted both of the other meeting*, 
one in the morning and the other in the afiternoon. A 
telegram was received from Rev. Mr. Jones saying that 
he had found Mrs. Jones somewhat improved in health 
and that, together, they would reach Savannah this 
morning. 

Last night's meeting was almost as large in numbers, 
and centainly quite as good in attention and visible re- 
sults, as any that had been held during the present se- 
ries. Not only was the Tabernacle completely filled be- 
fore the service began, but a miscellaneous crowd gath- 
ered on the outside of the building, where, eight to ten 
deep, they listened 'to the entire service. The section of 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 45 

seats reserved for colored people was filled by 8 o'clock, 
though the service did not begin until some time after 
that hour. 

Before beginning the service Mr. Stuart announced 
that today, and on succeeding days, until further notice, 
the meetings will be held at 10 :30 o'clock a. m., at 4 :30 
p. m., and at 8 p. m., either himself or Rev. Mr. Jones 
conducting them, as the strength of each and the cir- 
cumstances may determine. He itold his audience also 
that a minister of Savannah had been discussing with 
an old member of his church the results that so far had 
been accomplished by the meetings, and had been told 
by the old mian not to be surprised, as he had long been 
praying to God thait the ministers might be given the 
power to accomplish much in Savannah. In concluding 
the story, Mr. Stuart told his hearers to remember that 
in Georgia there are thousands praying for a like result, 
and in the United States by itens of thousands. 

The evangelist announced his text as Psalm 91 :3 : 
"Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the 
fowler/' and said that he was going to preach on the 
traps of the devil in Savannah, and, he continued, "I'm 
a-going to sitay at home with you." He then exem- 
plified his text so that there could be no mistaking its 
meaning. "Surely he" — -that is God — "Shall deliver 
thee" — that is yourself — "from the enare of the fowler" 
— that is the devil. 

"Here David has pictured' the devil as a bird catcher, 
and as I tell you of your own life you will be surprised 
to see how like a bird you are. The first of these snares 



46 LIGHTNING- FLASHES 

that I mean to talk about is the decoy." Here Mr. 
Stuart gave a most graphic description of a duck hunt 
when he had seen for the first time a decoy duck used. 
He and his companions lay in ambush, he said, while 
the decoys — a thing of wood and paint, had led the ducks 
to their doom. He was so impressed, he said, that he 
has since asked himself, if the devil, too, has a trick 
like that with which he, likewise draws his game to its 
doom. "Yes," he answered, "The devil has, and it's 
the nominal member of the church covered with eccle- 
siastical paint, but spiritually as dead as that old wood- 
en duck — .and Savannah's full of them. 

"There's not a vice in the world so gross that the 
devil hasn't something like it in the church. The 
devil knows that it won't do to ask a man to itake a big 
jump, all at once, and so he leads !by easy gradations, 
step by step to the lowest depths — the first step in this 
downward grade begins right at the church's door. 
Church members will, in a milder form commit sins 
that the most dissolute man of the world will. I'd as 
soon be a saloon keeper as to keep wine at home. There's 
more danger at the top than there is at the bottom. 
There is no difference in ithe world's ball room and in 
the social dance at home. Gambling in a den is no 
worse than gambling at home. A young man or woman 
can be as low as he or she can fall and have started 
that very fall at home. 

"Gambling's gambling. What is the difference be- 
tween gambling for money and gambling for things. 
Why, I have heard of women who gambled for 'things', 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 47 

cut .glass, and so forth, and she was for some reason, 
£0 successful in winning things thait she'd take them to 
the dealers and sell them — turn them into cash. What's 
the difference between that and gambling for money it- 
self. This town is noted for its gambling from top to 
bottom, and it never will be stopped until it stops in 
your homes; it starts there and ends downward. 

"Hunt out the drunken men and the -gamblers, and 
ask them where they took their first drink, or played 
their first game, and thousands of them will tell you 
"Home." 

"Occasionally ithe devil has for a decoy a Colonel, or 
a Major; a judge or some other "Big Ike" in town. 
Well, I can tell you what they are like by telling you 
a story — it happened in Meridian when a friend asked 
me if I wanted to see an educated turkey. 'An educated 
what,' said I. 'An educated turkey gobbler/ he 
answered, "he's trained to hunt. They turn him loose 
on a ridge in the woods and he goes about gobbling until 
he calls the wild turkeys in reach of the hunters' guns." 
'Well/ I said, 'I've met the same kind all over the coun- 
try — Col. 'Gobbler, and Dr. Gobbler; Maj. Gobbler and 
Judge Gobbler.' " 

"Now I want to tell you something — 'Sam Jones and 
George Stuart have been all over this country ; we know 
all of its organizations from top to bottom, and when- 
ever you hear us jump on anything, although there may 
be some good men in it, the institution itself is pulling 
men to hell. You may talk of 'Masonry' and of 'Odd- 
fellowship/ but you can rest assured that they are 



48 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

founded on the spirit of /the teachings of Jesus Christ 
or they wouldn't have lasted; and nothing can last that 
isn't founded on good. 

"Take the club, and God save us from these gilded 
palaces that start our boys on the downward path — 
.the club is like an egg — fresh when it is started, but 
growing worse the longer it stands. There was an old 
"Col. Gobbler" once, w'ho invited me to go through his 
club. The first room we came to was a reading room; 
my guide pointed it out with pride, saying, 'In there 
is to be found the masterpieces of the world/ I looked 
at some of ithe books lying there and found enough fire 
and brimstone to burn up every man in town, but my 
guide informed me that they believed in liberty of 
thought, in liberty of action and he went — gobble, gob- 
ble, gobble. And so we went on until we came to the 
buffet, where he said every kind of drink was to be had. 
Tt's a saloon/ I said, and then he started with his 
liberty of thought all over again; — ■''Gobble, gobble, gob- 
ble.' ' 

"Listen ! When he says beware ! There is danger 
there." 

Mr. Stuart (then told of a young man who had taken 
his 'first drink in the home of his future wife and at 
her special request, and that this had been the cause of 
his afterward becoming a confirmed drunkard. "Don't 
be a devil's decoy," he warned, "Stand on the one side 
or the other. The trouble with old Savannah today is 
that she needs a straight line between the church and 
the devil so that the people can get on the one side s>r 
the other and fight it out. 



AM) THUNDERBOLTS. 49 

One illustration that the speaker used to enforce his 
argument against drink and gambling was that of fish- 
ing for sea gulls. He described the operation as he 
had once witnessed it, and then said, "I never before 
thait time knew where Webster got the word 'gulled' 
from. It means f you think you are going to get some- 
thing, and the something gets you.' The devil never 
gives you anything that is not a gull rope. I remem- 
ber the case of a Savannah man that some of you may 
know, Eeese Fowler, a plasterer. He played cards one 
night and won $20. When he went home he put the 
money on the table. 'A night's sport,' he said, f and 
I have made that. Goodbye trowel, I've found a better 
way to make money than with you.' 

"God pity the man/' continued Mr. Stuart, "who 
has found a better way than to be honest. Every man 
that gambles is at heart a thief. Gamblers are spend- 
thrifts ; gamblers are outlaws, both of God and man ; and 
gamblers are thieves at heart. Well, Eeese Fowler con- 
tinued his new life, sinking lower and lower, until one 
Sunday morning in a room over a saloon he was killed 
by another of the profession." 

In another anecdote told of a friend in Tennessee, 
Mr. Stuart told how by hard work and strict Christian 
honesty, he had acquired a business and home, "and/' 
he said, "there was not a dirty dollar in it." In quot- 
ing the story he said, addressing the audience, "You can 
build out of corruption, you can build with your liquor 
money, or you can build with your gambling money, 
but you can never be happy in a place so built." 



50 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

The evangelist talked of prohibition, and said that 
though it had long been delayed and might not come yet 
for a time, he felt it would come, and believed the happy 
time would be ait hand when Christians voted as they 
prayed. This statement was greeted by hearty cheers. 
In concluding the sermon Mr. Stuart told of the con- 
version from the drink habit of two men, relations of 
his, of which he gave a graphic and pathetic account. 

Miany of his hearers had been visibly affected during 
the sermon, and when the invitation was made for pen- 
itents to come forward there was an exceptionally large 
number that responded, some of the men not only ask- 
ing for prayers, but also promising, voluntarily, that 
they would never again drink. After the service was 
concluded Mr. Stuart expressed himself as well pleased, 
saying thait it had been "a great meeting." 



AND THTMDERBOLTS. 51 



CHEERFUL RELIGION. 

AS MUCH RELIGION IN LAUGHTER AS IN WEEPING, SAYS 
EVANGELIST STUART. 

Rev. George R. Stnart again conducted the afternoon 
service at the Tabernacle yesterday, and preached in his 
customary characteristic and forcible style on "How 
we may serve God." His text was Psalm 100 : "Serve 
the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with 
singing." f&aid the speaker, "There is naiturally too 
much grumbling among those who call themselves Chris- 
tians. There is as much religion in laughing as there 
is in crying. Love God and all mankind, he said, and 
you will be the happiest person in the world, for the 
world is full of beauty when the heart ie full of love. 
Christians ought to be cheerful. I am tired of Brother 
Grunter and Sister Complaining, and I haite to see 
Christians disgrace the Saviour that way." Here the 
speaker related an experience that he had with an ossi- 
fied man who though he had no use for any of his limbs 
or body, yet was a Christian and quite cheerful, ex- 
plaining that God had use for some to run,, some rto 
walk, others to talk, and once in a while, for one to lie 
on his back for 'Christianity's sake. Again he repeated 
the statement that it was as religious to laugh as to cry. 
"Man can ithink," he said, "He can weep, and he can 
Jaugh. If he only thinks he is not wholly a man, he 
is as cold as a dog's nose; if he only cries he is as sad 



52 L1GHTNMG FLASHES 

as bread that didn't rise; while if he only laughs he is 
a fool. The complete man laughs, weeps and thinks. 
Every man that has stirred the world has made it think, 
and laugh and weep. Moody did it, and Spurgeon did 
it. The Gospel does it by touching every key in the 
whole gamut of human life and feeling." 

In another part of his sermon he discussed the acts 
of God, which first cause human suffering, but which 
in the end are for some good purpose. ^God does not 
say," he said, "that all things are good, but that all 
things work together for good." He cited cases where 
death or other misfortune had brought repentance and 
conversion to persons, and said that even infidels,brought 
like Ingersoll, in the presence of the death of a loved 
one, could see the "Star of Hope, and hear the rustle 
of wings." 

"God's work," he told his hearers, "is divided into two 
kinds : that of saving sinners, and that of helping saints. 
Going to church, reading the Bible, attending Sunday 
school and prayer-meeting, is not serving God. Truly 
to serve God, one must do something to help another." 
This he illustrated by a story of one man that hired 
another to do six things ; he was to eat, drink and sleep ; 
plow, sow and reap. He did the first three things, but 
neglected the others. f Thou fool/ said the employer, 
'I hired you to eat, drink and sleep that you might be 
able to do the other work." 

"Now," said Mr. Stuart, "Beading the Bible is eat- 
ing, secret prayer is drinking, and resting on the prom- 
ise of God is sleeping; but if you do these only you 



A'ND THUN'DEiE&BOLTS. 53 

are not serving God: what have yon done for Jesus? 
Yon are but serving yourself. 

Here he turned to the ministers on the platform and 
told them ithat if they didn't watch out they'd let a lit- 
tle too much ministerial courtesy stand in their way. 
He advised them to go down among the congregation 
and help by their sympathy and advice those that might 
be won to God. "Help ithose you can," he told the con- 
gregation, "and God will help you." 



54 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



WAS WARM SERMON. 

REV. SAM JONES' VIEW OF SOME OF SAVANNAH'S OFFI- 
CIALS SAYS THE MAYOR IS "MY MEAT." 

Hot Roast for an Alderman on the Tabernacle 
question. — The crowd the largest that has yet at- 
tended any of the meetings. — (Kept excellent order 
and was swayed by the speaker at will. — Mr. Jones 
put questions to the rising vote, and his views en- 
dorsed, the congregation agreeing with him that 
every word he said was true. 

Rev. Sam Jones returned to 'Savannah yesterday 
morning, accompanied by his family. Last night he 
started in on Savannah, and some of its customs and 
officials in a way that fairly electrified the audience, 
which, by ithe way, was quite the largest that has ever 
attended a meeting of this sort in Savannah, numbering, 
as it did, about 8,000. But immense, though it was, 
perfect order was kept, and, except when a roar of 
laughter followed some characteristic remark of the 
speaker, there was not even a rustle to be heard in the 
vast auditorium. 

Mr. Jones' peculiar mood, as it afterward developed 
in his sermon, might have been discerned even in his 
preliminary remarks, though the very nature of his sub- 
ject made him less caustic than he was later in the 
evening. 

He began by suggesting that the people were missing 



AND THTJNDEKBOLTS. 55 

much by not attending the morning and afternoon meet- 
ings of the series. "I mean some of yon people that are 
crowded out at night/' he said. "I have never fancied 
an owl religion that waits for the night to go to services. 
Some of you fellows are afraid that if you leave your 
business for five minutes or an hour, you'll lose some- 
thing. If I had the money thait you have, and as little 
religion as some Off you I'd just come to these meetings, 
bring my dinner and a nickel, and I'd stay. 

"Now, if you'll keep perfectly still you'll all be able 
to hear me ; I'm not hoarse, just got a frog in my throat, 
you see I'm down where it's damp ; this is a wet town." 

The evangelist's text was taken from Proverbs 11 : 
19. "As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pur- 
sue th evil pursueth it to his own death." "When a good 
man dies," 'he said, "he goes straight to heaven, just as 
surely as if I dropped this book, it will go straight to 
the floor ; when a bad man dies, he goes straight to hell , 
just as surely as this book would to the floor if dropped. 
The good man goes to heaven because he is good, and 
the bad man -goes to hell because he's bad; this is the 
logic of the situation. 

"To see this exemplified" he continued, "go to the 
funeral of a good man; the minister will say here lies 
the body of our departed brother, but his spirit has gone 
home to live with God; and looks of .approbation will 
be seen on the faces of all that hear him, be rthey good 
or bad. But take the case another way; go to the fu- 
neral of a man, who ? though he may have belonged to 
the church didn't live right. The hypocritical minister 



56 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

may say the same thing, but he has violated the princi- 
ples of truth, the people know it, and they have no 
further faith in him. I tell you, the common convic- 
tions of humanity are in harmony with this book." 

"My purpose tonight is to show ithat f He that pur- 
sueth evil pursueth it to his own death.' Sin is not only 
a wrong, it is .a disease. If one persists in drinking, one 
becomes a drunkard ; if one continues to lie, a liar, and 
everywhere I've been, except Savannah, to be a liar is a 
terrible thing. The trouble is men look on ithe act it- 
self and never see the reflex action on the character." 

Mr. Jones compared the effect of sin, persisted in, to 
the slow but deadly poison of a serpent. "I don't need 
any teacher or a Bible," he said, "to convince me that 
sin is the ruin of men, of municipalities, of states and of 
countries. Right here in this town, I can show you 
characters showing all the horrible ravages of sin. 
Whether it be the millionaire or the bum. He that sits 
in the chief seat of the synagogue, or that grovels in a 
den, the ravages of sin will tell on him. Like the virus 
of the cancer which kills at last, the virus of sin is as 
deadly. 

"Again, he that pursueth evil not only pursueth 
death, but pursueth death to his conscience. Every sin 
is a stab at your conscience, but there are a thousand 
men in Savannah tonight as .conscienceless as if dead 
and damned. The trouble in this country today is tha-t 
you have stabbed to death the conscience of the indi- 
vidual, the municipality, the 'State and the country. 
You know that as a nation we have no conscience. The 



AMD THUMDEEBOiLTS. 57 

national government is in league and co-partnership 
with the infamous liquor traffic, and both the Repub- 
licans and the Democrats, if they can hut win by it, are 
willing ito continue so. What do the damnable, dirty, 
politicians of this town care if every mother's son is 
debauched, if they can get into office and run their lit- 
tle mills. If Savannah had as much conscience as she 
has pride I'd have some respect for her. And this 
want of conscience has crept into the very churches, 
affecting deacons, and stewards, and vestrymen; aye, in 
some cases, ithe very ministers of God. 

The State of Georgia as an organized and economic 
body has no conscience; we levy blackmail from every 
saloon keeper to get money to send our children to 
school. Why, I'd rather my boy go to heaven sober, 
knowing only his a, h, c's, than to go drunk to hell and 
be able to read Greek. Why, if ignorance barred men 
from preferment you've got aldermen in this town that 
couldn't be eleated dog-pelters. 

"I was born and raised a Democrat, I lived and 
moved among the Democrats, but I've got to that point 
when I think that the highest demands of patriotism 
and loyalty are those (that shield the wife, protect the 
mother and send the boys home sober. Yes, I've been 
with the damned, dirty, whiskey-soaked, red-nosed 
Democrats; I've made speeches for them, and Fve toted 
a torch light in the procession till it burned my fingers, 
and I've gone home drunk on their Democratic liquor. 
And all the time I was making speeches, and they were 
cheering me, there was my sad-eyed wife at home. But 



58 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

bless God, I've quit it, and now they call me a mounte- 
bank, a blackguard and a fool, but thank God I'm a so- 
ber and a happy fool. 

"You, in this town, can have your own political elec- 
tions and buy your voters as we buy mules in our coun- 
try. But if I were here and loved my home I'd sooner 
commit suicide than see it. And look at your preachers, 
when these politicians want office they turn from your 
preachers with contempt and say, 'Give us the gamb- 
lers and the saloon keepers and we'll go into office.' 
You know it. I'd as soon go to Alaska for pineapples 
or to hell for waiter as to Savannah for an honest pol- 
itician. They can send your children to hell and yet 
say that if they had known of my work out here to save 
them they'd refuse me the use of the place. Listen ! 
If I were running a soap factory in hell and they hauled 
me the carcass of an old alderman like that I'd say 
leave it out. 

"Hear me, my countrymen, you talk about a man 
having stabbed his country's conscience to death, the 
time has come in this so-called Christian country of 
ours when we ought to lift our prayer that these con- 
sciences be resurrected. 

At this point, Mr. Jones referred to a certain of- 
ficial and asked!: 

"Who'd accuse him of having a conscience ? I'm just 
asking a question. Will everybody who believes he has 
a conscience please stand up?" 

There was a roar of laughter at the first question, 
and no response whatever to the second. No one either 



AKD THUMMEfiBOLTS. 59 

spoke or made a move to stand up. "Gentlemen 
of the press/' said Mr. Jones, turning to the reporters 
on the platform, "put down the facts; don't cover up 
anything for either God or the devil; give us a square 
deal." Then turning again to the congregation, Mr. 
Jones said, "The personal character of the official re- 
ferred to above is out of my reach, but as a public offi- 
cial, he's public property and he's my meat. 

"'What we need in this country," continued Mr. 
Jones, "is to put into every office in this State, from that 
of Governor down to constable, a man that has the fear 
of God in his heart. You may tie a thousand-pound 
rock around my neck and drop me in the Savannah riv- 
er, but every little dabbling wave that passed over me 
would say, 'You have drowned an honest man who 
had the courage to stand up and preach conscientiously 
to you/ 

"Is life so dear, is peace so< sweet, that you don't dare 
help yourselves? Every preacher in this town ought 
to be a mixture between a billy-goat and a mule, so 
that he could butt with one end and kick with the 
other. To do good here we must put our people on 
their feet to loo'k and long for better things." 

"Listen! I put you on notice now; I'm going to 
make every man and woman in this place endorse what 
I say before I get through or make them hug those 
benches like sick kittens, Bud. And you shan't say I 
didn't give you notice. You can think and get on 
your feet or you can think and get under the bench. 
You'll do one or the other, but you'll indorse every- 



60 LEQtHTNMO FLASHES 

thing I say, not the sermon as a whole, but every sen- 
tence, every word, and every syllable of it. 

"He that pursueth evil stabs conscience to death. 
'When he does he is already in the way the devil wants 
to have him. And ithere are a lot of yon old deacons, 
and stewards, and vestrymen down there, all you lack 
being in hell, you old devil, is to die. When the con- 
science is stabbed to death the man is out of the reach 
of God." 

Turning to the ministers on the platform he said: 
"Brethren, are you praying? Well, iit's a good time 
to pray, for we want to say those things in this town 
that will make iSavannah a better city than it has ever 
been before since it was incorporated. 

"He tha/t pursueth evil pursueth not only death, but 
the death of sensibility) — sensibility the parent of sen- 
timent, which is the power that allows us to enjoy the 
grandeur of the sunset, the beauty of (the landscape and 
the fragrance of roses — the power that keeps us close 
to mother, and in that way close to 'God." 

"There are men in this town who have killed their 
sensibilities and are so dead to all ithat is noble and 
pure that I had as lief shake hands with a dead man 
as with them. 'Every sin is a direct stab at sensibility. 

"Again, he that pursueth evil not only pursueth 
death, but pursueth death to the intellect until after 
stab, and 'stab, you reach that point where you believe 
a lie the truth, and the trutfti a lie. God pity the 
man who stabbed his brain with sin until he can'it take 
hold of truth. What a contempt I have for these big, 



AND THUNDBBBOLTS. 61 

brainy fellows who sit around and drink champagne 
and curse and stab their brain until they become an 
enemy to God and society. I would like ito see every 
office in the State filled -with men like Judge Jackson, 
noble hero that he is. I say now, right here, that I'll 
^ever vote for any whiskey-drinking, cussing dog for 
office. I'm too much of a gentleman myself. 

Here he turned to the ministers again and said, 
"There you preachers are a-sitting, and I know you 
agree with everything I say, yet you're as silent as tomb- 
stones without an inscription on it. If a man can help 
me dig dirt out of my ditches and I couldn't help him, 
I'd at least stand on the hank and say amen while he 
worked. 'But, never mind, if you'll hold while I skin 
we'll make hides go down/' 

He described the awful accident that once befell a 
train because on a down grade the brakes refused to 
work. "The greatest power God has .given men is will 
power," he said, "and the next greatest power is won't 
power. The won't power is like the brakes to the train. 
Every sin is a stab ait the brakes, and tonight I am 
talking to men who have stabbed their brakes and are 
rolling to hell. 

"Many of you," he said, "have promised to stop 
drinking and have not done it; many have promised to 
stop blaspheming the name of God, and have not done 
it, and if you aren't careful, you'll sink into hell aft last 
as dirty as you .are tonight. 'God pity the men in Sa- 
vannah, who have gone where they can't stop. Brother, 
put on the brakes where you are. 



62 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

"He that pursueth evil pursueith death to his own 
soul. What is death to the soul, what is death eternal ? 
You have seen the death of the body, the heave of the 
:bosom, the glare of the eye, the twitch of the musr 
eles. Is the everlasting death like this? Oh, that God 
would help us to shun the stab." 

Mr. Jones here called on every man, woman and 
child that had heard the sermon and who, by the grace 
of God, believed it to be itrue, to stand up. Apparently 
the entire congregation arose. "You reporters get up 
and see." Said Mr. Jones, "Ninety-three per cent, in- 
cluding the colored people are up." Then he continue'd, 
"Thank God, old 'Savannah's not so bad and ignorant 
•as not to know the itruth when she hears it." 

Mr. Jones concluded his address with some advice. 
"I want to see you, he said, "a 'Christian, noble and 
pure and good, but remember, a human resolution is 
no stronger than the man who maide it, and only God 
Almighty can keep a man on his feet. I know by my 
own case, he continued: "If I hadn't believed betting 
sinful I could have won every dollar in my county when 
I first reformed; every man there was willing to bet it 
wouldn't las|t. But it did; it was a case of stick and 
stick; I stuck thirity years and have got more stick- 
ability about me now than I ever had before. I like 
the old Presbyterian doctrine that gives every saint a 
chance to persevere. I don't like the way some of you 
persevere. Yes, I like the old creed, and old sort of 
Presbyterians that it made." 

Again he said that the reformed man was an en- 



A(ND THUNDERBOLTS. 63 

tirely different person from his old self. What you 
want to do, he said, is to be born trie same night the 
old self dies. You, over there, sitting by your wife, 
you'd better be born (tonight, when your old self dies, 
and give your wife a decent husband and the town a 
decent citizen. 

'•Bless you, I'm not mad with this town for what 
you've done. You folks ain't easily stirred, but when 
you are stirred you are the sftirredest lot I ever saw. 

To the ministers he said, "Brethren, did you expect 
anything like this? You never expected it, did you? 
I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of you didn't have 
to pull your old pocketknife out of your pocket and 
prove to yourself your own identity." 

When the call for penitents was made the response 
was the largest probably that has been seen at any of 
the meetings. 



64 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



LIENS ON THE TABERNACLE. 

NOT INTENDED TO EMBARRASS MINISTERS' ASSOCIATION. 

(The Morning News, May 17, 1901.) 
The filing of liens against the Park Tabernacle in the 
Superior Court yesterday by Capt. W. T. Gibson and 
W. V. Aimar & Co. for nearly $700 money and material 
advanced to the Raleigh Manufacturing Co., of which 
Mr. John G. Blaine is president, caused some talk. 
Capt. Gibson said last night that the liens in no wise 
intended to embarrass the Ministers' Association which 
had the Tabernacle erected, but are simply ifco secure 
himself and Aimar & Co. for the money and material 
they have put into it. Mr. Blaine, for the Raleigh Co., 
had to be paid $850 for the use of the Tabernacle. He 
has been paid $750, and is to receive the remaining 
$100 when the building is removed. The building it- 
self is the property of the Raleigh Manufacturing Com- 
pany, and in reality is only leased to the Ministers' As- 
sociation. It is a portable structure, and Mr. Blaine is 
already negotiating for its sale to several parties. It 
may be used as one of the buildings for the State Fair. 
The Ministers' Association is also said to be figuring on 
its purchase lor a permanent tabernacle. 



AND THUNDMtfBGLTS. 65 

HAD MA-NY PENITENTS. 

REV. G. R. STUART PREACHED A STRONG GOSPEL SERMON. 

The usual sized! congregation was present at the after- 
noon service at the Tabernacle, conducted by Rev. G. E. 
Stuart yesterday. The sermon was a plain gospel one, 
though it abounded in the anecdotes, and graphic stories 
of personal experience with which the speaker has so 
well illustrated all of his previous sermons. 

It was also one of the most successful afternoon 
meetings that has been held, as an unusually large 
number of persons responded when ithe call for penitents 
was made. 

Mr. Stuart's text was drawn from parts of Matt. 
5:29-30: "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it 
out, and cast it from thee" — and) "If thy right hand 
offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee." "There 
is no compromising verse in the Bible," said the speaker, 
"and God does not compromise with sin. He does not 
tell you if your right eye offend you put eye-drops in 
it, or to put a shade over it, or to go to a doctor with' 
it — he tells you to pluck it out. Nor does he tell you 
if your right hand offend you to tie it behind your 
back. He tells you to cut it off. Now I want to talk 
to you this afternoon about some of these right eye and) 
right hand sins — and it would seem, that we're all apol- 
ogizing for 'em and fixed up for keeping 'em." 

Mr. Stuart then explained that almost everybody was 



66 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

willing to admit that absolute holiness in living was 
necessary, if one would get into heaven, yet each not 
only found it hard, but sometimes even didn't try to 
get rid of the little sins. "Too many," he continued, 
"are satisfied with being average Christians. Now, my 
opinion of the average 'Christian is that if he doesn't re- 
pent, he'll go to hell." 

•(Jetting back ito the question of little sins, Mr. Stuart 
said that everybody had them, possibly just one. One 
man might be a good man, except that he drank, an- 
other would be all right if he always told the truth, and 
still another man's only failing might be he didn't pay 
his debts. "And now let me tell you right here/' he 
said, "The man that owes an honest idebt, and yet wears 
a silk cravat, steals the difference between the price of 
silk and cotton." 

Again returning to the questions of sins, he said, 
"That he had once read that worry and ill-temper are 
germs of all mental and moral sine. But that they 
could be overcome by God's help. He indorsed this 
statement, because he had proved it in his own life. 

In illustrating many of these points he told an inci- 
dent that occurred to himself or to members of his 
own family; then explained to his audience that he had 
been criticised for doing so, but continued to do it, 
because after all, families are alike, and he talked of 
his own family by preference, because he knew it better 
than he did any other family. 

Before he finished speaking he told the congregation 
that many of them were still victims of these little sins 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 67 

that he had been (talking about, not because they could 
not get rid! of them, but because they didn't want to, 
because they found it hard to do so. "Many of you in 
trying to die to sin," he continued, "are like Pat trying 
to commit suicide. A friend came along one day and 
found him suspended from a limb by a rope around his 
waist. 'What are yez doing?' asked the friend. '"'Com- 
mitting suicide/ promptly answered Pat. ,r But/ said 
the friend, 'that's not the way to commit suicide; put 
the rope around your neck/ 

" f Oh, no/ said Pat ; 'Faith, I tried that, and it nearly 
stopped my breathing.' " 



G8 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



GAVE ELKS A DIG.— &AM JONES HAD ANOTH- 
ER SAY ABOUT THE B. P. 0. EPS. THEY 
BUIN BOYS, HE SAID. 

A SERMON TO YOUNG MEN ON CHARACTER AND 
ASSOCIATION. 

An Elk who doesn't drink, Mr. Jones said, is 
like a fool in the Baptist Church who doesn't be- 
lieve in immersion. He declares that he is now on 
to the Elks. — Evils of evil associations. — iSavannah 
and the Whiskey Traffic. Gambling scored, and 
policy held up to the colored people as something 
to be shunned. 

"Associations fix the character of a man, and his 
character fixes his destiny. There is a sermon in that 
very sentence. I want to preach especially to you young 
men, and! may iGod sanctify every word I utter for the 
good of young men and old. 

'^Heredity is a well-established principle. Traits of 
character that are shown by the parents can be trans- 
mitted to the children. Not only the good traits, but 
the bad, can be so transmitted, and that such is the 
ease is the saddest fact in this life. All would like to 
transmit their virtues to their children, but who would 
want to transmit their vices? The boy of the drunk- 
ard is half a drunkard when horn. If his mother is a 
drunkard then he is a whole drunkard when born. 



AMD THUNDERBOLTS. 69 

It is as true that children inherit the vices of their 
parents as it is that they inherit their features. A 
lying woman need not he surprised at the vice when it 
exhibits itself in her son, and a drunken father may 
expect to see the love of drink develop in his offspring." 

"I declare that I think it no shame to inherit the 
sin of lying and stealing. The sin is not yours; it 
belongs to your forebears. You come by it honestly, 
and I do not see the sin in it for you. But there is a 
place where patrimony ends and volition begins. I'll 
give you an illustration of what I mean. An illustra- 
tion is easier for most people. It'll take and be under- 
stood where an (argument will fall flat. Suppose, when 
my father died, he left me a saloon. He didn't, I 
want you to understand, but for the sake of the illustra- 
tion, we will suppose that he did. I have traced the 
Jones family all the way back to Adiam, but I've never 
yet found a record of one that kept a saloon. There 
have been plenty of them mean enough to drink liquor, 
but there's never been a single one low enough to sell 
it. Suppose, as I was saying, that my father had left 
me that saloon. That would have been an inherited 
sin. But I wouldn't have had to run it, would I? 
If I had, that would have been voluntary, and I wonld 
have been low and mean enough. The thing for me 
to have done would have been to roll every barrel of 
liquor out of the joint and smash it in the street. 
Then I might have opened up ia drygoods store." 

"I've got no ipatience with people who are always 
laying the blame on their progenitors. It's like some 



70 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

saintly old creature getting up in church and saying 
that 'It wasn't me that sinned, but the flesh.' Sup- 
pose some chap should go before a judge with any such 
story as that when he had been hauled before him 
for murder. 'It wasn't me that killed him, but the 
flesh. 5 Why, the judge would say: 'Here, Mr. Sheriff, 
take this flesh out doors and hang it. 5 It is not the 
flesh, any way. There is no meaner, lower or more 
depraved class of men in the world than soldiers and 
sailors. Whisky killed more American soldiers than 
Spanish bullets or Cuban fevers. That was a war with 
old John Barleycorn, instead of a war with Spain. The 
closer you put a fellow to the flesh, the better he is. 
The good wife, the good mother and the good children 
are what make a man good. You can't offer a man 
a higher motive than the flesh. How can a man with 
a wife and children ever become a bloated, whisky- 
drinking sot?" 

"Heredity or environment, which is worse? I 5 d 
rather risk my boy, with his heredity, in good company, 
than an angel from heaven among some associations. 
I'll give you an illustration again. This one will show 
you the influence of association. I got a little black- 
anoMan ratter out in Texas once. He was about the 
best that was ever made. He was a ratter from Ratters- 
ville. He'd not only kill rats, but he'd kill cats. You 
see be wanted the cats to know that he was out to take 
care ocf every rat on the place, and that he didn't want 
any assistance. lie was about the best black-and-tan 
that ever went into a barn. My boys used to brag 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 71 

mightly on him. 'Then I got a water spaniel and 
turned him loose in the yard with the terrier. I tell 
you, it wasn't three months before association with 
that rat dog had taught the spaniel more about the 
game than the ratter knew himself. My boys came 
to me and said that the spaniel could beat the black- 
and-tan all to pieces. There was that terrier, with 
the rat-catching instinct bred in the bone, and there 
was that spaniel, with never a thought of a rat until 
he got associating with that rat dog. Don't you see 
it? It was association. The terrier is dead now, but 
the spaniel is still at it — still catching rats at a great- 
er rate than any dog I ever knew. It's just like 
some of you poor fellows who have got your vices. You 
are living along under them, while the fellows from 
whom you got them through association are dead and 
damned." 

<fl The Elks are a drinking crowd, and that is the 
only reason in the world that I ever fulminated a 
single denunciation against them. They have an evil 
influence upon your boys. I don't want to see boys 
taken in by the Elks and ruined. I suppose you Sa- 
vannah preachers have never said one word against 
the Elks. I guess you are as ignorant about them 
and their ways as any ten-d»ays' old nigger baby in 
town. I tell you, I've traveled a heap in my time, but 
it took me a long while to catch on to the Elks. I 
didn^ get o-n to them until two years ago, but I'm 
on to them now. I like their charity and benevolence; 
that's all right. I like any big-hearted fellow, but 



72 LIOHTNMlG FIiABHES 

I don't like them to start to setting up a practice of 
drinking and getting young men in with. them. ] 
don't want my boy with 'em, and if he goes in, him 
and his daddy will have a head-on collision when he 
gits out." 

"You ain't got a pious Elk in this whole town. Snow 
me one and I'll eat him raw without salt. I don't 
want to see any recruits in that gang. Let them thai 
are already in go ahead and drink themselves to death, 
if they insist on it, hut don't let them be pulling others 
in. It's a lot easier to stand up on the bank and keep 
'em from pulling others in than it is to get a pole and 
line and fish 'em up out of the bottom of the river 
after they've done got 'em in. A fellow in the Elks 
who don't drink is like a fool in the Baptist Church 
who don't believe in immersion. He's got no place 
there, has he Brother Jordan?" turning to the pastor 
of the First Baptist Church, and getting a "no" for 
his answer. 

"I'm here in a city, -where it is almost as respec- 
table to sell and drink whisky as it is to sell dry goods 
and eat bread and meat. By the way, I see in the 
afternoon paper that some little fellow has been talk- 
ing about me over a nom de plume. Now you know 
what a nom de plume is? It's a buzzard with all his 
feathers stamped off. It is the refuge of a pusillan- 
imous coward who writes against a minister of the 
gospel. Put your name in, Bud, and I'll hunt up yonr 
pedigree. Do you know why he uses a nom de plume? 
I do. It's because a nom de plume is better than his 



AOT> THU^BEiRBiaLTiS. 73 

own name. Let all who want to attack me, from the 
alderman down, or the alderman up, put down their 
names, for I'm a great pedigree hunter. You see, I've 
got the advantage on my side, because everything that 
could be said about me has been said. I've said it 
all myself. I haven't kqpt back a single word of all 
the low, mean, things I used to do. I guess it would 
be different with the other fellows, though, and my 
hunting up his pedigree might discover something that 
he wouldn't want known." 

"I don't say hard things about saloon-keepers because 
they make money. Why, they ought to make money. 
A man engaged in a business like that ought to get 
paid for it. He sells the meanest stuff on the top side 
of the earth to the lowest characters that live, and 
then, when it is all over, he and the men he sells it 
to must all go to hell together. Tell me .a business 
like that oughtn't to pay ? I don't fight saloon-keepers. 
I fight institutions.. No, I don't fight the man, but 
I fight the town that will sell him a license to do 
business, thus dividing the proceeds of his hellish busi- 
ness with him. My objection to the saloon-keeper is 
the same that I have to the louse — he makes his living 
off the head of the family." 

"We wouldn't have to make a fight against the ga fab- 
lers and the saloons if their evil work were over. If 
the gambler never taught another boy to gamble, if 
the saloon never wrecked another home or if the dread 
infernalism of Savannah were to break no more moth- 
ers' hearts and send no more souls to the deepest depths 



74 LBGHTNINiG ULAjSHES 

of hell, then we would not have to fight them. We 
would stop just where we are, and their race would be 
run !" 

"They say to me: f Mr. Jones, oughtn't good peo- 
ple associate with bad ones so as to save them?' 
Humiph. When you find a rotten potato what are 
you going to do with it? Put good ones all around 
it so as to save it? Jesus 'Christ went to the hog 
pen and fed them, but he didn't get over with them. 
Bun with drinking men and you'll get to drinking, 
run with gamblers and you'll get to gambling, run 
with the low, dirty policy writers (turning to ad- 
dress the colored contingent in the congregation) and 
you'll get to playing the wheel. 

"Suckers, suckers! God pity you hard-handed la- 
boring men. Those devils of policy people are tak- 
ing away from your wives and your families the money 
vou earn, taking from them the bread and meat that 

p 9 o 

it is your duty as husbands and. fathers to provide. 
Oh, you niggers; come seven, come eleven." (It was 
quite evident to see that the preacher didn't make 
any particular hit among those of the colored persua- 
sion who heard him when he called them "niggers." 
Some of them laughed with the good nature that is 
always theirs, but here and there could be seen others 
who appeared mortally affronted.) 

"I've traveled around this old world a heap, and 
I've traveled with my eyes and my ears open. I've 
seen things and I've heard things. Jump me up for 
a fool, and you are left to start with. I would rather 



AND THUNDBEBOLTS. 75 

be a rascal than a fool. You can reform a rascal, but, 
look here, did you ever have anything to do with a 
fool? Hear me, boys. You stay away from bad 
companions and stay with good ones. 'But, Brother 
Jones/ you say, 1 can't stay in Savannah and not as- 
sociate with bad companions/ Stuff and nonsense! 
I've been here four days, and I haven't been associat- 
ing with any. And I ain't goin' to, either, and they 
ain't goin' to associate with me. If you were to ask 
a saloon-keeper down town which he would rather do, 
go up to the De Soto and spend the night with Sam 
Jones or go to jail, he'd tell you, *<3-o to jail.' " 

"There is the secretary of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association over there. He can tell you the young 
men who frequent that institution, getting temporal 
and spiritual profit from their associations there, and 
he can tell you others that you couldn't get within a 
mile of the place. G-od help the Y. M. C. A. God 
help anything in Savannah that will keep the young 
men from ruin. I guess you are begging your way, 
ain't you, brother? Yes? Do you know any good 
thing in Savannah that isn't begging its way. When 
a good thing comes to my town I'm goin' to help 
it in every way I can, but when a bad thing comes, 
I'm goin' to turn the business end of a mule upon it 
and send it over the fence. 

"The crowd you run with here is the crowd you've 
got to gang with in hell. That place is projected upon 
an intensified plan along the lines of evil that are 
practiced on this earth. I've preached in peniten- 



76 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

tiaries. The worst men in the State are not always 
found in the penitentiary. 'They get the unfortunate 
ones there, those who were found out. I tell you, 
you poor white folks and niggers had better look out. 
You'd better behave yourselves, or they'll get you. 
Poor white folks and niggers have a hard time in this 
world. They get the kicks and knocks of fortune, with 
few of the pleasant pats. I hope there will be good 
places reserved for them in the next world." 

"You poor folks let the rich folks do all the drink- 
ing they want to. You let it alone. The dirtiest dog 
in this town is the poor man who takes a drink, 
knowing, when he pays for it, that it is taking some 
slight comfort away from his wife and family that 
might be theirs if he was not such a fool as to squan- 
der the money on his cursed thirst for whisky. Let 
the rich folks go ahead. That's the gang that doesn't 
like what I say. None of you poor folks mind what 
I say, do you?" 

Mr. Jones closed with a story of a Christian dinner 
party he had once given the young men of Carters- 
ville. He told it in an attractive style, and it was in- 
teresting. He told of the advice that he had given 
the young men, and it was such advice as could not 
but be followed with profit. He then invited penitents 
to come forward and shake hands with him. Many 
accepted the invitation. 



AN'D THTTN'DEBBOLTS. 77 



BACK AT ALDERMEN. 

REV. SAM JONES SAYS THEY'LL LICENSE ANYTHING. 
FOR DEVILTRY UNLIMITED HE PLACES SAVAN- 
NAH ABOVE ALL OTHERS. 

Man who rents a store for use as a saloon not one 
whit better than the man who keeps it. Scoundrels 
.both, says the Evangelist, — 'Another dig at the Elks. 
He'll join the order if its members will take the 
pledge. — Roasts the city clubs. — They are Hog- 
wallows, says the preacher. — 'Savannah gets its 
share of hard talk. 

Mr. Jones talked to a crowd that filled, while it 
did not overflow, the tabernacle in the park extension. 
He jumped on the City 'Council, repeated his criticisms 
of the Elks, likened the city dubs that maintain bars 
to hog-wallows and rounded it all off with a good, 
long, hard roast of Savannah in general. And every 
time he had the crowd with him. Every time he 
turned loose hot shot about individuals, organizations 
or the city generally, the congregation turned itself 
loose and applauded. He talked.' plain, blunt talk 
and there was no difficulty in understanding what he 
said and what he meant. And the crowd, when he 
had brought his remarks to a close, arose and gave 
a silent indorsement, at his request, to what he had 
said. Opinions of the man may differ, as indeed they 
do; here in Savannah they run the gamut that lies 



78 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

between the crown of the Messiah and the cap and 
bells of the Mountebank. On one subject there can 
be no diverse opinions among those who have at- 
tended a gathering at which he had spdken; that he 
holds his audience in the hollow of his hand and con- 
trols it at will, there can be no shadow of doubt. 

"In this tabernacle tomorrow night, I am going 
to speak to men only. I want to talk to men, too. 
We don't want any trundle-bed trash around here. 
I think this is one of the largest Saturday night 
audiences I have ever addressed. I want to make it 
the best. Usually we don't conduct Saturday night 
services in the towns in which we happen to be, but 
I wanted to hold one in Savannah. Tonight the devil 
is abroad and the old red noses are loading up for to- 
morrow." 

"My friend®, things have been told me to-day that 
have made me feel good. God is in this city, and, if 
you will watch and pray with us, I believe the next 
forty-eight hours will see things happening in Sa- 
vannah that will shake the old town from center to 
circumference. I mean what I say. You come out 
to these services and help us. Don't waste your time 
arguing with those who don't come and don't want to 
come. Don't waste any time defending me; I don't 
need any defense. If you finci anybody who has got 
something to say about me, why just give him two 
nickels, one to pay his way going and the other re- 
turning, and send him to me at the De Soto. I'll 
greet him cordially and won't hurt him either. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 79 

"Don't you be worried aibout what people say about 
me. Why, bless you, because Savannah don't like me, 
is no reflection on Sam Jones. It's just proof that you 
are too mean to like a good fellow. 

"Let 'em talk. About Monday I hope to have the 
aldermen of the city interviewed, but I'd just as soon 
interview an oyster. I'm here now. They talk a 
little before I come and after I go they may have a few 
brief remarks to make, but they are not going to say 
anything now. They know I'm a great hand for pedi- 
grees and I'll tell you, Bud, there ain't many of your 
aldermen who want their pedigrees looked into. I'm 
not talking about their ancestry now; for all I know 
they may come from some of the best people who ever 
walked the earth. 'What I'm after is their moral pedi- 
gree. I'm talking about their daddy, the devil, and 
his gang." 

"You know some of these people say f If Sam Jones 
talked like (that to my face, I'd knock him down.' Well, 
what's that you are looking up at me with? Ain't 
I talking to that and ain't that your face? Bo you 
wear your nose on the back of your head? 

"I keep on repeating it. All I want any man who 
desires to discuss things with me to do is to give me 
his name. That's all — let him give me his name." 

All this was preliminary to the sermon. The text 
was: "What must I do to be saved? And they said, 
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved, and thy house." 

"Religion is intensely a personal matter. It is not 



80 LIGiHTNMG FLASHES 

a question for this State, or the city, or the ward of 
the city or the family, but for every individual man 
and woman. It is a question for me, and it is a ques- 
tion what I shall do. Not what I read, or think, or 
am told, but what I do makes religion and the dif- 
ference between the best man in iSavannah and the 
worst is the difference between what they do. Reli- 
gion, in its last and best analysis, is something to love 
and something to hope for. 

"It's truth I'm telling you, brother. It's what you 
do on this earth that is going to count when you come 
to answer up yonder. That old doctrine about 'If 
I'm to be saved, I shall, and if I ain't, I ain't,' won't 
do. That old Hardshell talk has played out ; you can't 
make any man that's got sense enough to be reasoned 
with believe a word of it. I don't know anybody of 
whom the devil has got possession more completely than 
an unconverted Hardshell. 

"It reminds me of the preacher who was conducting 
a revival in a Hardshell community, who asked an old 
sinner in the neighborhood to come over and hear him 
preach. The old fellow leaned over towards the preach- 
er and said brother, I've been listening to hear the 
still, small voice for sixty years, and I haven't heard it 
yet.' "Well,' the preacher answered, 'if I'd been listen- 
ing to hear a thing for sixty years, I'd either move 
up closer or pick my ears.' That's what you want to 
do, BUD." 

Mr. Jones said there was too much muddy talking 
about Christianity. "You want to talik sense to folks." 



AND THUNDEBIBOI/FS. 81 

He illustrated his method of conveying truth with 
two or three clever anecdotes. Tell people what the 
central idea of a thing is and they can figure the rest 
of it out for themselves. 

"And what is the central idea of Christianity? 
What? It's cleanness, its decency, its purity, its right- 
eousness. That's what it is. You hear people talking a 
lot about being born again. Don't you worry about 
that, friend. You won't have any more to do with your 
second birth than you had with your first. 

"Now look at this handkerchief. If s a silk one. If 
I send this to may laundry woman and it comes back 
linen — 'Who's that striking that match and lighting 
cigars out there?" The speaker suddenly interrupted 
his discourse to inquire, looking at the same time in 
the direction whence had proceeded the loud screech of 
match drawn across rough wood. There was no an- 
swer. 

"Now I don't mind you smoking, but don't come so 
close to smoke, and don't come so close to strike your 
matches. You worry me. 'Get away down about the 
monument and light up, and then there'll be fire at 
one end and a fool at the other." 

The man with the match having been disposed of, 
Mr. Jones started in again with the handkerchief. He 
said that if instead of the silk handkerchief, he had 
sent out, his washwoman had brought back a linen one 
and told him it was the same, that the fabric had been 
changed in the washing he would know she was a liar 
and a thief. If the silk handkerchief came back clean, 



82 LMHTMNG FQDASHES 

he would 'know the expected service had been preformed. 

"It's the same way about salvation. It don't make 
another man of you. You are the same old man, but 
you are a clean one. The blood of the Lord Jesus 
Christ was shed to wash the last speck of dirt out of 
your heart and leave it as it was before. 

"Salvation is a poor human being, with the dirt 
washed out of him. You stand up a clean man, lov- 
ing everything that is clean and hating everything 
that is dirty. 

"But you are the same old man. God hasn't made a 
new one. 'He hasn't made something out of nothing 
since he created Adam. Gk)d didn't create you out of 
nothing, sister; woman is not a part of creation. When 
he saw it was not good that man should be alone, he 
caused Adam to be overcome by a deep sleep and took 
a rib from his side and from this he made woman. 
Some say he took it from Adam's left side, nearest 
his heart, but I don't know. Some say he took it from 
his right side, from under his strong right arm, so that 
under that arm woman might find protection through 
the centuries; sometimes I doubt this, too. 

U I admire the manhood that looks after wife and 
children and I haven't got any use for any other kind. 
You talk about protecting woman and shielding her 
from insult and harm, and yet every bar sign that 
swings along your streets is an insult to every wife and 
mother in 'Savannah. You license them and use the 
money and then you run around prating about f the 
home of the free and the land of the brave.' You 
lying hound, you." 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 83 

"Poor humanity is all out of harmony with itself. 
That's whatfs the matter. Some of the people talk 
about man coming from a monkey; say he started as 
an animalcule, then was changed into a bug, and from 
a bug to a fish, and froam a fish to a squirrel and from 
a squirrel to a monkey and from a monkey to a man. 

"Well, I don't believe we were built that way. I 
don't believe we came from monkeys, but when I look 
down at some of you fellows, I think you are heading 
that way. 

"You ain't headed right, my friends. You haven't 
been put together according to the book of instructions. 
You show me a man who hasn't been, and I'll show 
you the worst out of whack old sinner that ever dis- 
graced this town. 

"You ain't headed right. When you start down 
town and stop in a saloon and spend the money that 
would buy your wife and children some little com- 
fort or stop in a policy shop and gamble away what 
you have scraped together, you ain't headed right. 

""Why I received a letter to-day from a man who 
complained about my speaking disrespectfully of the 
infidels. He thought (I ought to treat them with more 
consideration. He wanted me to call a damnable old 
buzzard a mocking bird. 

"I've got no respect for an 'infiddle.' You're noth- 
ing but an old mouth going around talking, and if 
somebody would come along and smash your mouth, it 
would smash the whole dog, from snout to tail. 

"Don't talk to me, Bud, about your Savannah men. 



84 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

You make me tired. There isn't a dirty saloon in this 
country that the law and decent men oughtn't to close 
up at 9 O'clock in the evening and let the men who 
hang around them go home. 

"Why if I wanted to commit any deviltry on earth 
I'd come to (Savannah to do it. If I wanted to run a 
policy shop, or a turf exchange or a saloon, open three 
hundred and sixty-five days in the year, or a hoochee- 
eoochee dance in the middle of your principal park, 
why ! Fd come to Savannah and apply for a license to 
the magnificent, Daniel Wehster.like, wise aldermen of 
the city of 'Savannah." 

"But I tell you what I'd do. I'd close up when Sam 
Jones came to Savannah." 

"Isn't it a farce? Isn't it a travesty upon the ad- 
ministration of justice and the law, when the dirty, 
devilish crowd here is more afraid of Sam Jones than 
they are of judge, jury, mayor and the whole crowd of 
3'our immaculate aldermen? 

"And there ain't a one of them that's got a thing to 
say aibout Sam Jones. What I said about the alder- 
man who wouldn't have let me have this place in the 
park, I stick to. If I did run a soap factory in hell, 
I wouldn't have his carcass if it were brought to me. 
I. would not have a deoderizer strong enough." 

"Listen. There ain't a dirty old scoundrel in this 
town who rents his property for a saloon, who is one 
whit better than the damnable bull-necked scoundrel 
who keeps the place. 

"Why, brothers," said Mr. Jones, turning around to 



AM) THHNI>E[RBOiLTS. 85 

the preachers who sat with him on the platform, "don't 
you say Amen to that? I'd say it if they licked me for 
it before I got home. 

"I haven't got any respect for the man who goes 
around saying: 'I don't make any (pretentions myself, 
but I've got the hest wife in the world.' Well, what's 
your wife got, you old devil, you? 

"You young bucks sitting over there, if you want 
to know how cussing sounds, just go home and have 
jour pure and innocent .sisters reel off a yard or two. 
You say you are gentlemen, but if to be a gentleman a 
man has to run around with your crowd and do what 
you do, I'd rather be a bob-tailed yellow dog. 

"You can't be a gentleman in Savannah without 
drinking whisky. That's right. You can't be a gentle- 
man socially, I mean and not drink. Ain't that so?" 
asked the speaker of the preachers on the stage. They 
couldn't agree on this proposition and Mr. Jones let 
it pass. '"When the physicians disagree, I guess its 
left for the patient to do the best he can for him- 
self." 

Mr. Jones turned loose again on the Elks. He told 
a story, that in turn had been told him by one of the 
local ministers, who had been asked by an Elk to join 
the lodge. According to the story a brother Elk had 
remonstrated with the first for extending the minister 
the invitation, on the gro-und that an Elk lodge was no 
place for him' and the Elks themselves would lose re- 
spect for him if he joined. 

And it isn't ; a preacher has no iplaee in a room where 



86 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

they guzzle beer. They've got preachers in there, I 
know, and if I was a beer-swigging preacher I'd join 
them too. If they'll stop drinking beer and whiskey 
and sign the pledge I'd join them any how. I'd like 
to,because they are good-hearted, clever fellows and I've 
no ill will against them. 

"Fve got as much respect for them, anyhow, as I 
have for your city clubs. I don't care whether a bar 
is kept in a hovel or in a club furnished with all im- 
aginable comfort, it's the same sort of a dirty hog- 
wallow to me. It's leading your boys to perdition. It's 
truth I'm telling you, and I'm 1 not afraid to say it. 
They say some of these people are going to hurt me, 
if I talk against these clubs — that they are going to 
clean me up. 

"Bud, I don't need any cleaning up; I took a bath 
before I came here. Fm opposed to everything that's 
got whiskey or beer in it, and Fin going to fight it 
while I have breath." 

The sermon was brought to its conclusion from this 
point. A tender story or two, the evangelist told of 
the comfort, soothing, healing balm that had come to 
men through salvation. 

He asked the professing 'Christians in the audience, 
who had felt themselves benefited by the services to 
stand up. Three-fourths of the crowd arose to their 
feet. Then he asked the unsaved who felt that they, 
too, had received inspiration from the gatherings and 
felt that they wanted to be saved, to rise. A large ad- 
ditional number was added to the standing throng. 
Then the audience was dismissed. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 87 

SAM JONES' DIFFERENT SIDES. 

INTERESTING INCIDENTS. 

After the services at the tabernacle a night or two 
ago a policeman approached Rev. Sam Jones and of- 
fered to escort him to his hotel. 

"I think it advisable for an officer to accompany you, 
Mr. Jones," said the blue coat, "as the temperature of 
your assertions may have aroused the wrath of your 
critics." 

"My friend," said the evangelist, "I'm not afraid of 
any man on earth or devil in hell. I don't want any 
protection." 

A 'Cotton Exchange man was asked the other day 
what the members think of Rev. 'Sam Jones. 

"His severest critics are those who have not heard 
him," was the reply. "For myself, I have attended 
several of the night meetings, and as a result my form- 
er ideas of Mr. Jones have been modified. Like many 
others I thought the meetings would be more for enter- 
tainment than a factor for good. It seems to me that 
any fair-minded person would indorse such utterances 
as he has made so far. Everyibody hears something 
which does not set well on their stomachs, but it must 
be borne in mind that the speaker is addressing himself 
to a congregation composed of classes that warrant him 
adopting as many different styles and methods to suit." 

The two met in a down-town square and began talk- 
ing albout Sam Jones. 



88 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

"What do you think of him, anyway? queried the 
reporter of a man who hadn't warmed a church seat 
in years. 

"Jones is all right. He said some things, though, 
that I thought could have gone unsaid. While I'm 
not a psalmsinger, I claim some good qualities, and one 
is love for my family. Jones talked about love for 
his family when I heard him last, and that touched me 
to the heart. That sermon lined me up in the Jones' 
column, and I became interested/' 

From this the man related verbatim a pathetic story 
told by Mr. Jones. With the warmth and earnestness 
born of conviction, he was beginning to disclose facial 
evidences of the touching effects of Mr. Jones' story, 
when he turned abruptly on observing an incident 
nearby : 

cr Well, did you see that blank, blank, blankety, 
blank? him, if I were in reach I'd break hie blank- 
ety blank head." 

After cooling down, the man realized the abrupt- 
ness of his change from pathos to profanity. "I'd 
give Sam Jones $1,000 to stop my swearing. You see 
I broke loose here before I hardly knew it. I'm full 
of cuss words, and when I see anything like that over 
yonder I go to cussin '. Yes, Fm going out to hear 
Sam tonight." 

Some } r ears ago Mr. Jones held a revival up in Ten- 
nessee — at Knoxville. The meetings were held two 
miles from town at a park owned by the street railway 
company. 'Considering the disadvantages there, the 



AMD THUM)tERBOI/riS. 89 

meetings were very successful. Before they were clos- 
ed, however, the good people of that bailiwick learned 
what Mr. Jones thought of those who didn't even care 
to help bear the expense of the meetings. As is fre- 
quently the case, the incandescent lights strung to the 
trees began dancing and flickering about the time the 
speaker was warming up in his appeal. Added to this 
the collection was small, some had contributed almost 
nothing and many less. When the receipts were an- 
nounced Mr. Jones advanced to the front of the plat- 
form, braced his right shoulder against the corner post 
of the platform and began shelling the crowd. He 
wondered what such a crowd expected of a preacher. 
If the whole gang had heen taken by the heels, he 
said, and shaken upside down only scattering pennies 
and pocketknives would have come. 

With Mr. Jones on his present trip is a gentlemanly 
little fellow who followed the evangelist thousands of 
miles before it was discovered that he was part and 
parcel of the evangelists's party. This man sells the 
song books; but at that time he was only handling pic- 
Cures of Mr. Jones, which found ready sale among Mr. 
Jones' thousands of admirers all over the country. He 
sells both pictures and books now and between the two 
finds the profits enough to keep him going. 

"They say Mr. Jones is a money-grabber," he said. 
"If he is he has never asfced for any share of the pro- 
ceeds of my sales, though he could have legitimately 
charged me for this privilege if he had chosen to." 



90 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

"Are any of these song books returned and money 
asked for at the close of the meetings?" 

"Yes, occasionally. Sometimes a half dozen books 
are bought for one family, and 'when the meetings close 
they return all but one or two." 

"Is this Savannah meeting an unusually large one?" 

"No; all Sam Jones' meetings are large. I have 
never yet seen a Jones meeting a failure, and never 
expect to see one. It's success everywhere he goes. 
Mr. Jones understands the people and he soon makes 
them understand him. Thenceforth it's all right." 

This is why one man won't go to hear Mr. Jones: 

"Grant that I should attend a Jones meeting, during 
which I might desire to retire. Suppose that on my 
way out I should be insulted by Mr. Jones, shouting, 
as he has previously done, 'There goes a man to hell.' 
The next day there would be trouble that wouldn't 
compensate me for the good." 

Eev. Sam Jones and a \pleasant party were the guests 
of the Savannah Thunderbolt and Isle of Hope Rail- 
way yesterday on a trip to Thunderbolt, Isle of Hope, 
and around the city belt. A special car tendered by 
Mr. J. H. Fall, vice president of the railway, left the 
Boston Street Junction, at 3 o'clock carrying, besides 
Mr. Jones, Rev. G. R. IStuart, Mr. J. H. Ramsay, Rev. 
W. A. Nisbet, and Mrs. Nisbet, Rev. Ed. F. Cook, Rev. 
J. D. Jordan, Rev. Osgood F. Cook, Rev. William F. 
McCorkle, Rev. D. W. 'Edenfield, Rev. J. A. Smith and 
the Misses Jones. 

At Thunderbolt, a stop was made for a short time in 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 91 

order to inspect the new Casino, and then the trip was 
continued (to Isle of Hope, where another stop was 
made. The trip was in every way a most enjoyable one 
and was much appreciated by those in the party. 

"Paul Pry," who recently printed a card relative to 
Eev. Sam Jones in the Morning News, has received 
many letters from others who share his views. The 
latest received is from Mississippi. In it the writer, 
who evidently is under the impression that Paul Pry 
is conducting a paper, asks that space 'be accorded him 
io express also his views of the Mr. Jones. 



93 LIGHTNING- FLASHES 



SAM JONES 1 TO MEN.— ARRAIGNED THEM BE- 
FORE THE BIAR OF THEIR CONiSOIEINiCE. 

EVILS THEY SHOULD SHUN. — PROFANITY, GAMBLING, 
ADULTERY AND DRINKING. 

'City and County Officials were roasted to a turn. 
— Mr. Jones was abusive, but his words struck deep. 
• — -Hearty and frequent applause marked' concur- 
rence in niGet of his thrusts. — Mayor and Alder- 
men, Judges and Solicitor General all came in for 
a share of attention. — Great audience of men stood 
at close of the service to show a desire for better 
things. 

Sam Jones 9 stag party at the Tabernacle last night 
fulfilled every promise that the evangelist made for it. 
Metaphorically, blood and hair were spread all about, 
the crowd furnishing the blood and hair, and the 
ground was "tore up," Mr. Jones, as he promised, fur- 
nishing the ground. 

The gathering for men only was the greatest that 
has yet attended a service at ihe tabernacle. It was 
thought likely that, when the congregation was de- 
prived of the women, who have usually predominated, 
there would not be enough men left to fill up the place 
and leave the usual fringe , about on the outside, but 
those entertaining such expectations did not find them 
realized. There was a larger gathering of men than 



iAiND THUNDERBOLTS. 93 

a municipal election can get together around; the 
County iCourt House. There were more men than there 
are names on the list of registered voters in Chatham 
County. 

Packed and jammed into the tabernacle, elbowing and 
pushing their fellows along the benches until room 
could .be made, standing in the aisles and all about 
the gates and on the outside, masculine humanity per- 
spired without complaint, being highly interested in 
the evangelist's sermon. 

Shorn of a, feiw remarks that were for the ears of 
men alone, the sermon was much like those that Mr. 
Jones delivered during his stay in Savannah, save that 
there was, perhaps, more abuse in it and more epi- 
thets and contemptuous expressions. The crowd was 
well pleased, though, as was proven by the salvos of 
applause. The sermon, too, was indorsed, and the 
arrows and darts of stinging sarcasm that were let 
fly found marks in city and state officials. It was 
such a roast as those officials never before had put upon 
them, and it couldl not have been pleasant to them, 
were any present, to hear the adverse praise that was 
bestowed upon them. 

The service, of course, was without the aid of the 
feminine voices that are usually heard in the choir. 
But there was a tremendous crowd of eager choris- 
ters, accompanied by Rosenfeld's orchestra, of the male 
persuasion, all anxious for places upon the platform. 
Seats were at a premium, anyway, and the man was 
lucky who could get one. Even places on the ground 



94 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

were not going ibegging. As soon as he began his re- 
marks, Mr. Jones invited all who were standing in 
the aisles to sit down on the ground, an invitation that 
was received by those whose view was obstructed, with 
applause. 

After the sermon had proceeded for some minutes, 
a shower fell, but the preacher was in no way dis- 
concerted. "Now, everybody keep still. God ain't 
going to break up this meetin' with no shower. You 
fellows on the outside there needn't be afraid of water, 
nohow; fire's what you'd better worry about. You'd 
better stand a little ducking than miss the sermon. 
There'll be a warm time here directly. Just crowd 
into the aisles and have seats. If you can't find no- 
where else to sit, why sit on the ground." 

That brought the crowd in, and they sat about in 
the aisles, escaping the rain and keeping fairly com- 
fortable during the hour and thirty-^five minutes that 
Mr. Jones preached. At one time during his talk 
Mr. Jones said: "You all just keep quite a little 
while longer and I'll be through. I knolw I've been 
talking about an hour and ten minutes, but I haven't 
got more than afoout two hours more to talk." This 
brought applause from the crowd, which seemed per- 
fectly content at the prospect of listening for two hours 
longer. 

"I hope to see results from this service that will 
tell on Savannah for 100 years. So let's be quite and 
attentive. When a minister of the gospel has any- 
thing to tell me, I have three questions that I want 



AM) THUNDERBOLTS. 95 

to ask him. I want to know if lie is posted on his 
subject. When he has shown me that he is, I want to 
know if he means kindly toward me in what he says. 
When he has answered me in the affirmative, I want 
to know if he lives what he preaches. If the three 
questions are answered affirmatively, I throw wide my 
heart and listen to all that he has to say. 

"Now, am I posted? That's a question you can 
answer for yourselves. You watch me as I go along 
and see if I don't know what I'm talking about. As 
to feeling kindly toward you, I tell you that, as sure 
as I live, I haven't a thing in my heart against any 
man on earth. Well then, do I live what I preach? 
Now, you know that a fellow that throws as many rocks 
as 'Sam Jones does couldn't live in a glass house. No, 
sir, they would have broken up my house long ago. 
But I'll tell you this right here, if I didn't stand bet- 
ter in 'Cartersville than most of you folks out there do 
in '^Savannah., I wouldn't criticise a nigger, I wouldn't. 

"I take this text from Genesis, 'Escape for thy 
life.' It doesn't take God long to tell about the crea- 
tion. He announces that fact in pretty short order, but 
he goes right on down through the ages giving warn- 
ings and directing man how to look after himself. We 
all love this life. Despair is the only thing in this 
world that is stronger than the love of life, and sui- 
cide is the last resort of despair. I have a trinity life, 
a physical, an intellectual and a moral life. The phy- 
sical and the intellectual life can be shattered and 
broken by indulgences that impair health, and so is it 



96 LIGHTNING MiA'SHiBS 

with the moral life, which can be ruined and wrecked 
by excesses and by violation of the laws of God. Some 
men say that they haint got no soul. Dogs don't have 
souls. Sin wredks a man here and damns him here- 
after. Sin is transgression of the law. I arraign this 
great crowd before the bar of its own conscience. I 
do not have a man here before a judge and a jury. I 
dio not drag him before the criminal courts of this 
place, because few people go there except poor white 
folks and niggers. 

"The first statute law upon which I will try you 
for violation is that which says that 'Thou shalt not 
take the name of the Lord tihy 'God in vain/ etc. This 
is the most excuseless, unreasonable and guilty sin that 
a man can practice. I am talking to not less than 
5,000 profane men. This is the plain truth I am going 
to tell you, and if you think that you can't stand the 
truth rubbed in thicker and faster than you ever had 
it rubbed in in your life, then you'd better get out of 
here. Don't you come here to me after I've said my 
say and talk to me about havin' hurt your feelings. 
What do I care about your feelings? Yiou get up and 
git out of here, Bud, if you thinlk you ain't goin' to 
like what I've got to say. 

"Everybody cusses here in this town otf yours. Old 
men and young men rip out their cuss words, and even 
the children on their way to and from school have their 
volleys of oaths. A -little boy six years old is sent down 
town by his mother to buy a spool of thread, and he 
gets the seed of foul language sown in his heart when 



AM) TH'UNMffiBOLTS. 97 

he passes a gang of you black-mouthed rascals. You 
cussin' rascals listen to me a minute. There's money 
in breaking the commandment 'Thou shalt not steal/ 
but there ain't a cent in it for you when you cuss. Then 
why don't you break that commandment about your 
stealing? It's because you are scared of the judge and 
the jury. You'll get on tihe chaingang if you git to 
stealing but there ain't nothing against you when you 
cuss. If you break one of those commandments, there 
is no reason why you won't break them all. Pull the 
bridle off a cussin' man, and there's no tellin' where 
you'll find him by mornin'. When a man swears, there 
simply ain't no tellin' what he'll do. I say this, and 
1 want every tihinOrin' cussin' man to carry it home 
with him. Any man who will break that command- 
ment is likely to break them all." 

"He's a ousser. Yes, sir; He'll cuss anybody or any- 
thing. He'll cuss everybody. He's the out-cussinest 
man you ever saw. No, he won't my friend. There 
are people right here in this town he won't cuss. If 
he does, he'll give some dentist a job that'll keep him 
at work on every tootih in his head, from the front clean 
on back to the last; one. What makes you cuss, a 713- 
how? Get up on your hind feet out there, Bud, and 
telll us why you cuss, you old cuss, you. If you warn 
to hear how it sounds to cuss, you go home and get 
your wife to do some of it for you. I used to know a 
fellow up the state who was a mighty cusser. Oh, he 
was one of the worst you ever saw. He was a cusser 
from Cusserville. He married a mighty nice sweet 



98 LIGHTNING FLASHES. 

little woman, but that didn't stop his cussin. She 
begged and plead with him, but it didn't do any good. 
One day he came home and ho said: 'Wife is the 
damned dinner ready ?' And she said : 'I don't know, 
dear, I'll go and see.' When she came back and said, f No, 
the damned dinner ain't ready ; the damned cook is sick.' 
'Oh, wife, wife, what in the world do you mean?' he 
asked her, and she told him tftiat she was going to try 
that means to stqp him from swearing. It did it, 
too. It was a bitter dose, but it cured him. You go 
home and get your wife to cuss for you. It would make 
a dog vomit to hear it, but it'll euro you. 

"Now don't you go away from here and say that I 
said the man who cusses will steal. I didn't say it. 
I said he wouldn't, but I told you why he wouldn't. 
He^s afraid of the judge and jury. Escape the sin of 
prdfanity. I would tihat every swearing man here to- 
night would lift up his voice 'and say that he has ut- 
tered his last oath. A profane man is fit only to be 
butted to death by a billy goat, and I wouldn't like to 
be the old' goat to have the dirty job. You'll see 
some dirty 'beast rip out a cuss word when a lady is 
standing near. Then he'll apologize to the lady. He 
ought never to have had the thing in him. Then it 
would never have como out. I'd as soon have a dead 
polecat in my belly, to jump out among ladies, as 
to have an oath in me that was forever popping out." 

"Now, I'm going to arraign you for your violation 
of the law that demands that you remember the Sab- 
bath day to keep it holy, I am talking to thousand? 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 99 

>f men who haven't kept the Sabbatjh since they were 
fifteen years old. Some of you say that you can't af- 
ford to keep the Sabbath in the good old way, because 
there is such 'a large foreign element in the country, 
and they do not like it. This is an American coun- 
try, and if any dirty, damnable foreigner doesn't like 
the way Americans keep a Sabbath, let the old devil go 
back where he came from. Some pot-bellied old Dutch- 
man will say: i I don't like dis 'Sabbat day vat ve 
find ofer in dis gontry,' and if you stick a knife into 
his old paunch you will see a keg of beer run out. 
This iSafbbath is as dear to the right sort of our Ameri- 
cans as is the honor of our wives and the peace of our 
homes. 

f< And there's a lot of you Americans here who are 
worse. You are so keen after the almighty dollar that 
you can't afford to stop one day in the week and ob- 
serve iSunday. You decent Americans give your hands 
to thousands idf l&w-afbiding 'Germans and Irishmen 
and welcome them, but we don't want any of these 
white-washed Dutchmen and galvanized Irishmen. 
Why don't you say, ' Amen?' turning to the preachers 
on the platform behind him, and the preachers promp- 
tly answered 'Amen.' There, now. You see these 
preachers have said f Amen.' If you don't like it, you 
can lick them. 

"I was in one town where the Lutheran minister 
came to me and said that he couldn't do anything with 
his people that a lot of his Germans kept their saloons 
open on Sundays. He told me that I couldn't say 



100 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

anything to them because they would dynamite me, 
they would blow me up, they would kill me sure. I 
listened to the good old fellow, and then I turned loose 
on that crowd. In less than ten days, 113 of them went 
before the judge, plead guilty to keeping their places 
open on Sundays, paid their fines of $200 and signed 
a legal pledge not to do it again. Wihen I met the 
Lutheran preacher again he said: 'Veil, veil. You 
done it, and dey didn't do anything to you, did dey? 
J would tought dey done you up, but you done deni 
up, ain't it/ 

">I am not fighting the foreigners. I am only fight- 
ing anything and everything in America that will pre- 
vent Americans from observing the Saihbatli. Why, 
they tell me they are running these vaudeville per- 
formances in Savannah on Sunday nights, is that so? 
turning to the preachers. He could bear no affirmative 
reply, though, so he didn't press that point. Any 
mayor and alderman, who would allow a town to be 
debauched with these vaudeville performances are not 
fit to run a dog kennel. They went to the mayor to see 
what he had to say about Sam Jones. What did he 
say? Why, something about suppressing Sam Jones 
if he tended to corrupt the morals of the town. Do 
you wan't a picture of the Mayor suppressing Sam 
Jones? Well, I'll show you one. Did you ever see a 
limited express train shooting along at full speed? 
Well, off in a field to one side is an old nigger lean- 
ing on a hoe, who concludes that he will suppress that 
train. The only evidence you can find afterwards that 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 101 

there has been any effort at suppression are a few pieces 
of hoe and nigger. You can sit down on somethin 
goin' a mile a minute, but you can't stay sot. 

"Any business that can't make a living for a man 
running it six days in the week ought to be drummed 
out of the place. I pray God the day may come when 
we will elect a Congress that will stop the wheels under 
every car on every railroad in the country and give you 
laboring men a seventh day of rest to honor and serve 
your God. The devil's got this country by the tail and 
is pulling it backwards to hell. About one hundred 
and twenty women and about thirty men make up the 
average Sunday morning congregation in Savannah. 
Where are the rest of you old roosters? Standing 
around on the streets or gathered somewhere else in 
your evil knots, spewing out your oaths and telling 
your smutty yarns. If I was a buzzard, sailing through 
the clear sky, and should get a glimpse of one of your 
nasty, stinking crowds do you know what I would do. 
Why, Fd turn up my nose, wheel albout and steer in 
the opposite direction and say 'um-um/ 

"If you've got a law in this town that you can't 
enforce, then you are on the verge of anarchy. If 
you've got a law you can, but don't enforce, then you've 
got communism started. Make me judge of this Su- 
perior 'Court of yours and I'll clean up your dirty 
places and laund'ry your clothes. But you'll have to 
bring 'em to me on some other wagon than that of a cer- 
tain official. And you want to git after this state of af- 
fairs. I tell you, when you git hold of a judge's tail 



102 LMHT'NINiG FLASHES 

and give it a twist or two he'll go up the road a-hikin.' 
This court institution of yours is just like a grist mill 
on a creek. They just take so much toll and turn 
'em loose. They just pull up these gamblers and run 
: em into the court house and milk 'em just Hike an old 
woman does a cow. And you know another thing — 
that the county gets the skimmed milk and said official 
gets the cream. 

"But there ain't no official goin' to be better than 
the people who elected him. He ain't no worse, either, 
than the people who elected him. The papers came 
out and said, the day after the last election, that there 
were thousands of dollars spent on it. And your 'back- 
boneless gang sits around and allows such a thing as 
that. 'Who believes that if Sam Adams were Mayor of 
Savannah he'd sit and grin, and grin, and grin? 
Did you ever see a little dog run out of a barn after 
he had been sucking eggs? The Mayor grins that 
way. iAnd the old aldermen. There are some good 
ones in that crowd, but they are in mighty bad com- 
pany. If I wanted to kill some of you aldermen, I 
wouldn't git a gun or a stick. I'd catch you on my 
thumb nail, like this, and come down on you. That's 
the way we used to kill 'em when I was a boy. 

"You men should stop this method of administering 
the affairs otf your city. You should hold a mass meet- 
ing in this talbernacle and get up resolutions, demand- 
ing the resignation of officials who have not done their 
duty and heen faithful to their oaths of office. If you 
back a little politician up against a stump and cut' his 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 103 

tail off and turn him loose in the woods in fly time 
hefll starve to death. You-ve got good citizens in this 
town, but they haven't got any backbone. Where the 
backbone ought to be, there isn't anything but a piece 
of string with two or three ribs knitted to it. If what 
I'm saying is true, you ought to reform the town. If 
if s false then you ought to kick me off this platform. 
It's easier, though, to reform the town. I've traveled a 
heap and I've preached in tough places, but never have 
I met the resistance that I have in Savannah. The devil 
has sure got a hold in Savannah. He's sick now, though, 
gone to bed with his troubles. You keep the Sabbath, 
you old billy goat you, and I mean no offense to the goat 
when I say it. 

^And let me warn you against the sin of adultery. 
Women, wine and cards are the three great evils that 
are cutting the grit (from under this country." Mr. 
Jones told of a man who had found his sister in a 
house of ill repute and bad shot her dead. "In that 
very town," he said, "the night of the occurrence, he 
had told 10,000 people that the woman had as much 
right in the house as her brother." He paid his com- 
pliments to doctors, too, who give young men certain 
advice, referring to .them as "you little bullet-headed 
devils," and mying that, if they gave such advice to a 
man's daughters, they would find a blazing shot gun 
confronting them. 

'"Gambling; she's goin' red-hot in Savannah. Let 
those policy wheels alone, you nigger. You laboring 
men quit your gambling. You are fools to gamble, 



104 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

anyway. You get your checks at the end of a montn 
of hard work, and when you stop 'by one of these pro- 
fessional gambling dens in 'Savannah and lose it all 
keeping your wives and children from having the food 
and clothes that it is your duty to give them. You 
ain't got as much sense as an old cow. They turn 
her out, and she eats grass all day. Then she comes up 
to be milked. You work hard all the month and get 
your money for it. Then you go up to the gambling 
hells to be milked. And you don't even get any grass, 
you old fool, you. 

"If I were a merchant or a business man in this city, 
I wouldn't employ a clerk who gambled. If you buck 
the tiger boy, and lose, you've got to get money from 
somewhere. I don't say that you'll steal; I say that 
you'll most do it. You men have got to look to the 
courts to stop this, and you have got to look to dif- 
ferent officials. This crowd won't do it, and you knew 
they wouldn't when you elected them. All they'll do 
is to try to stop Sam Jones' mouth. 

"You know they come to me sometimes and say: 
'Look here; what do you say such things for? Ain't 
you afraid they'll kill you?' Kill me? What for? No, 
they wouldn't kill me. But what if they would ? Why, 
that would only be a shorter cut to heaven. But they 
ain't going to do it. If I should go up a back alley, 
some one of them might take a chance, but I ain't 
goin'. The Bible tells me not to throw temptation in 
your way. 

"I admire the manhood of the young man who ap- 



AM) THUNDERBOLTS. 105 

peared before the grand jury recently to give evidence 
against the gamblers. I don't care whether he went 
voluntarily or involuntarily. I don't know his name, 
but they tell me that he has given his notes that may 
take him from seven to fifteen years to take up. He 
will meet the obligations that he incurred in gambling 
in this way. And you'd better quit, all of you 'hoys, 
or they'll have your head in a crack. 

"There's no difference between the rich man specula- 
ting in his stocks in Wall Street and you black devil 
with your Tome seven.' Turn you both wrong side 
out and you'll look just alike. Earn your money, don't 
try to win it. I would rather my boy would plough 
hard all day long, stub his toes and come back with one 
dollar in his pocket than to have him gamhle and win 
$100,000 that would only damn and ruin him, while 
the dollar that he earned would have the eagle on it 
changed to a nightingale to sing him to sleep when his 
tired head sank upon the pillow for his night's repose. 
Don't gamble boy; earn your money. Don't try to 
wear fine clothes and keep up with the swell young 
bucks in town. You'll get in the penitentiary sure^ you 
little idiot, you. 

"T am a man who can talk to you about drinking, 
for I have been through the mill. A fellow has to 
drink here to be a real, typical Savannah gentleman. 
If you don't drink, you're lonesome. Goin' round here 
tellin' me you never could see any harm in a dram, you 
lying old rascal, you. Groin' round here tellin* me that 
if you let whiskey alone, it'll let you alone. Quit 



106 UTCKHTNING MiASHEIS 

tellin' that you lyin' old scoundrel. A sober, upright 
citizen is walking along your streets, harming no one. 
Suddenly, a drunken man staggers out of a saloon. In 
the wantonness of drink, he draws his pistol and shoots 
the citizen dead. Did the citizen let whiskey alone? 
Yes. Did it let him alone? Did it let the broken- 
hearted wife and poor little children, who come run- 
ning at the news, alone? You can just as well turn a 
mad dog loose in the town and say that if you let him 
alone he'll let you alone. 

"You niggers, out there, you look at your horny 
hands. They got that way by labor. You go to your 
shanties and see what you've got there. Look at your 
miserable furniture: What's the matter? Why it's 
that drink. You spent your money there that you 
should be spending in getting you a decent house. You 
let that pot-bellied old Dutchman down on the corner 
alone. And you call yourself a Christian. You ain't 
a decent dog. 

"And you laboring men spend your money for 
whiskey, keeping some comfort away from your wives 
and families. Maybe you will say you are gentlemen. 
If }K)u are, then I'd rather be a hot-tailed, yaller dog. 
I believe that highway robber is a better citizen than 
the man who debauches his country by selling liquor. 
The rolbber will just take your money away from your 
boy once. The saloonkeepers will continue to take it 
away from him as long as he can earn it, and will then 
wreck and ruin his life and send his soul to perdition." 

The sermon was closed with a touching story of Mr. 



AND TEDUroEKBO'LTS. 107 

Jones' own experience with strong drink. He said that 
the appetite, cultivated during the three years of his 
addiction to the habit, is still with him after thirty 
years of total abstinence, and that, sad thing for a 
minister of the gospel to say, he does not know that 
he will not yet fill a drunkard's grave. Never, he said, 
will he feel safe until the last kiss of his loved ones 
shall have been placed upon his lips. 

The preacher then invited all the men in the audi- 
ence, who cared to live better lives, to stand, and none 
could be seen from the platform who did not respond 
to the invitation. He then called upon all to come 
forward to shake hands with him and show that they 
wished to do better, even if the process would require 
until daylight. Great throngs went forward and shook 
hands with the preacher. 



108 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



WARNED OF DEATH.— .REV. SAM JONES BIDS 
SAVANNAHIANS PREPARE FOR MISFOR- 
TUNE. TELLS O'F HIS EXPERIENCES. 

DEATHS HAVE ALWAYS FOLLOWED WHERE WARNING HAS 
NOT BEEN HEEDED. 

Says there will be deaths in Savannah between 
now and July 1, that will shock the community. — 
Stirs the congregation by telling that many were 
within the sound of his voice for whom the grave 
flowers now are growing. — Two hundred persons 
confess conversion. — Rev. G. R. 'Stuart gone to 
Tennessee. 

The Sam Jones' meeting last night, according to 
Mr. Jones, was not only the most successful that he 
has held in Savannah, hut one of the most successful 
that he has conducted in ten years. At the conclu- 
sion of a plain gospel sermon several hundred people 
gave the minister their hands and requested prayer, 
and later two hundred professed conversion and pledg- 
ed themselves to accept the teachings of the Bible and 
lead, hereafter, a changed and a 'Christian life. 

There was absolutely nothing in the sermon at which 
any one could take offense, nor was there any of the 
bitter invective and biting sarcasm that has been so fre- 
quently displayed as to have become, in the public 
mind, characteristic of Mr. Jones. Because there was 



AMD THUNDERBOLTS. 109 

none of this some of the crowd that attended the serv- 
ice was disappointed, but nevertheless stayed through. 

Mr. Jones preached from the text, Proverbs, 29 :1, 
"He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall 
suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." 

It was a plain gospel sermon, rendered strong and 
effective from the unmistakable earnestness of the man 
and the grim and terrible words of the text exempli- 
fied in all of the stories of the personal experiences of 
the speaker. 

After repeating the text, 'Mr. Jones said, "The 
bare announcement of this text ought to be enough to 
bring you all to your feet with the question, 'Who is 
the author of those fearful words? 7 And when that 
question has been answered, that it is the great, eternal 
God whose sleepless eye has marked us from the cradle 
to the present hour, there ought to be a thousand men 
to ask to whom, then, is the awful warning addressed. 
These people can say, truthfully, ' Surely God means 
me.' 

"Then if this message is to you, brother, I beg you 
to heed and accept the warning that God has sent 
you. There has been more sudden deaths in the past 
twelve months than in any other twelve months of the 
world's history. 'Cyclones, tidal waves, and earth- 
quakes, shipwrecks, paralysis and heart failure have 
.swept men into the presence of God every day. 

"Scarcely is there a morning newspaper that does 
not contain accounts of from fifty to one hundred sud- 
den deaths. A few weeks ago one-third of the papula* 



110 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

tion of an American city was swept into the presence 
of God between the setting of the sun and the rising 
thereof. How many people and things pass away; and 
yet not one jot or tittle of this sacred book is altered. 
"My purpose tonight is to recite some of the inci- 
dents along the pathway of my own ministry. I have 
preached to thousands and tens of thousands in that 
time who have since been swept into the presence of 
Almighty God. Sixteen years ago in Nashville was 
converted Capt. Ryman, whom I consider one of the 
greatest converts of the nineteenth century. A few 
days after I took dinner with him by invitation, and 
had as my fellow guests thirteen other gentlemen, 
many of the captains of my host's steamers, and one, 
the Mayor of Nashville. I occupied the place at the 
foot of the table, to one side of me being a captain, 
then the Mayor; on the other side being two captains. 
I had not been out of Nashville three months when 
one of the captains was found one morning dead. An- 
other three months passed and another of the captains 
fell to the floor of his boat and died within a few 
minutes. A few weeks later and the Mayor of the city 
was killed while on a hunting trip in Wisconsin, and 
about three months later another of the captains that 
had that day graced the table was found dead. Before 
I had been away from the city twelve months four 
strong stalwart men had been swept into the presence 
of God. ! 

"At a meeting that I held at High Bridge, Ky., one 
Sunday morning, as I preached, a young man that had 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. Ill 

been leaning against a post for a few minutes turned 
away with an oath and said, Tve got enough of that/ 
He walked a short distance away to a railroad station, 
attempted to grasp the ladder on the side of a freight 
train that was passing, was caught and thrown under 
the train, where he was crushed so that even his watch 
was flattened. Almost before I had closed the meet- 
ing that he had scorned, he was swept into the presence 
of God. 

"At a meeting that I held at Charlotte, after the 
call for penitents had been made, a young man got up 
and came two-thirds of the way to the altar, then turn- 
ed, whether shamed by some comrade's jibe, I know 
not, and went back and out of the church. The next 
morning he started on his usual run; he was a con- 
ductor, but had gone only about eight or ten miles 
when he was killed by another train. 

"*He that heing often reproved hardeneth his neck, 
shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' 
At Greenville, Miss., during a series of meetings, I sug- 
gested one day that the business men close their places 
the following morning, so that they and their clerks 
might come to the services. I was told later by a resi- 
dent minister that two men, saloonkeepers, not only 
refused to close up, but cursed me, and asked if 'Sam 
Jones thought they would close up to hear the vapor- 
ings of a blackguard like himself/ 

"I said I'm sorry, but you'll hear from it. I have 
known doors to be closed up by crepe. On the morn- 
ing that I left that town, early before anybody was 



112 LIGHTNING FLAiSH'BS 

stirring, one of these men went to open his saloon, he 
got the door open, then fell dead in the doorway, where 
later, he was found by the policeman on the beat. Ten 
days later the other, after walking from his store to 
his house, fell dead between the gate and the door. 

" 'He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, 
shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' 
During my last meetings in Palestine, Tex., there was 
a man that scoffed at us and said that a visit from 
Sam Jones and George Stuart was worse than would 
be a visit of the pestilence. When I was holding the 
last service he fell dead. 

"Now hear me : I dare assert that between now and 
July 1 there will be deaths here that will startle the 
community. I never hold a series of meetings that 
these things do not happen. I preach to you as a warn- 
ing, for God has borne with some of the people of Sa- 
vannah as long as he can, and I tell you that there are 
many now within the reach of my voice for whom 
the flowers that will cover their coffins are blooming 
tonight. 

" 'He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, 
shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.' 
Brother, friends, hear! These are God's words: were 
they human words, or even angel's words then might 
the scoffer laugh. At Columbus one morning a friend 
suggested that I preach to the policemen. The chief 
gathered them in the Recorder's €ourt room and I 
preached to them. I said, -you are a body of noble men, 
and I honor you, for you protect others, but yours is 



AND THUNBEflRBOLTS. 113 

a dangerous calling. You ought not to drink or to 
swear, but be true to God and the right because you 
may be suddenly taken out of life and into the pres- 
ence of God. Before ten days had passed after that 
talk four of those men that had heard me were shot 
down by a mad man and his son. 0, it's an awful 
thing to die anyway or anywhere, but it's a tremend- 
ously awful thing to be swept suddenly into the pres- 
ence of God. 

"I know not how I shall die; it may be from heart 
failure, or beneath the crack of the assassin's pistol. 
I hope not, yet I deserve to die suddenly, because of 
the many times that I hardened my neck before I sur- 
rendered to God. 

"But if I had my choice of dying I should go home 
to my wife and children, after a hard-fought battle 
for God, and with them and a physician, and in that 
kindly circle of them that love me, sink slowly, grow- 
ing weaker day by day. As the end approached I 
would spend a day in counsel to my children, and then, 
the doctor gone because of no more use, the world fast 
receding, I would «bid my children good-bye, draw close 
my wife to tell her of my devotion and then kissing 
her and my children, go cheerfully to God. 

'■There are many here tonight, who say 'you can't 
frighten me into religion; you can't scare me into a 
better life.' To these, I say, if if s facts that you want, 
all you lack to be in the home of the damned tonight 
is for your heart to stop beating. If that is not enough 
•to frighten you, you are a braver man than I am or 



114 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

than I will ever be. It is the part of common sense to 
listen to the voice that warns of danger. You sa} r 
'I've heard these sermons before.' Well, hear me 
again, you'd better be warned. When the pent-up 
judgments of God are loosened and shall rush upon 
you you will then cry for sheltering rocks and moun- 
tains. Brother, hear this warning; it's sent of God 
to prepare you for your winding sheet and coffin. 

" 'All that a man hath will be given for his life.' ! 
dying and diseased men, hear me tonight; the day will 
come when all remedies will be in vain. My brother 
and my friends, some time this hour will come upon 
you with a flash and God will then tell you that you 
had a warning, but that you hardened your heart. If 
there was ever an hour when the preachers should be 
upon their knees; when every mother and every Chris 
tian person should be upon their knees, praying God 
to save this town, it's now. Who knows but that it 
will be you on your son that will be swept to God 
next? 

"I have been talking to thousands here tonight who 
have had warning enough to wake the dead, yet they 
are no closer to God. Can the thunder of Sinai be 
louder or God's voice be stronger. That you hear it 
and are yet unsaved is almost proof that you'll not be 
saved at all. You tell me that Savannah is wicked, 
that her customs and manners are different from other 
places, and all that, but what will that have to do 
with you if you die a miserable sinner and stand in 
the presence of God unprepared at last?" 



AND THUM)EiB:BOLTS. 115 

After urging that drinking men, and swearing men, 
as well as Sabbath breakers,should heed the warning 
and repent, the evangelist told a grewsome story that 
had been told to him by a brother minister. 

There lived in a Tennessee town, he said, a working- 
man who was given to going on periodic sprees. While 
thus under the influence of liquor one night he fell 
as he tried to enter his room and bruised himself badly, 
but still retained strength enough to get into bed 
where, though sore from bruises, he slept. But it was 
a sleep that brought him no rest, for he dreamed that 
he had died and gone to hell, and that the devil met 
him and began to show him the place. He saw endless 
tables, he thought on which sat numberless human 
beings, with veiled heads. A't the command of the 
devil these veils were withdrawn and to his horror he 
saw that each of the lost souls emitted flames from 
eyes, nose and mouth. The heads were recovered, but 
at a second command the lost creatures uncovered their 
bodies from which, likewise, poured fourth the flames. 
Satan was aibout to install the dreamer into his place, 
but agreed to release him provided he would pledge 
his soul to be taken twelve months later. This the 
dreamer in his vision agreed to, and departed. 

The man, worried by his dreams, told the pastor from 
whom Mr. Jones had the story, and took the pledge, 
which he kept for about eleven months. Then, one 
day passing a saloon, he was enticed in and to take a 
drink with some of his former companions. The one 
drink 'led to others and yet others, until soon he was 



116 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

on one of the old time sprees. One night he lay in 
bed dead and stiff just twelve months from the time 
that he had had the vision of hell. 

"Brother Stuart, will be back Thursday. When he 
comes back I want to be able to say we've had one 
thousand conversions. Brother, we must, by God's 
grace, start to save them by the thousands; God grant 
that Savannah be the place that shall start the move- 
ment, and that it go round the world." 

Mr. Jones asked those of his hearers that could 
honestly say "Brother Jones, I want to heed the warn 
ing; I want to live a changed life," to stay after the 
benediction had been made, and to come forward and 
occupy the seats in the center aisle which had been 
cleared for them. The invitation was accepted by so 
many that additional seats had to be provided to ac- 
commodate them, and again still others had to be se- 
cured until when the meeting was finally dismissed 
nearly all of the center aisle seats directly in front of 
the platform were filled with penitents, of whom about 
two hundred professed conversion. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 117 



WOULDN'T BE AN ELK. 

OTHER INTERESTING INCIDENTS. 

"It has 'been reported, Mr. Jones" the evangelist who 
has been making things so warm in -Savannah was told, 
"that your attack upon the Elks is due to the fact 
that you once made application for admission into a 
lodge of the Elks and were blackballed. Is that so?" 

"That is a lie of the first magnitude. In the first 
place, I never made application for admission into the 
organization. I would never want to join such a gang 
as that. If it were a choice between membership in 
the Elks and the chaingang for my boy, I would say 
The chaingang. There's no chance of a man becoming 
a drunkard or learning to steal on the chaingang. 

"There would never have been any Elks had it not 
been for the fact that other old and reputable organiza- 
tions of a secret character would not admit saloon- 
keepers to membership. The saloonkeepers decided that 
they, too, wanted a secret order, and the Elks are tn<? 
result. You'll find! them identified with the saloon ele- 
ment all around. The grand 'Cyclops in Savannah is a 
brewer, and it's the same way in Atlanta. 

"It's foolishness for these Elks to pretend that 
what I say about them isn't so. I can't afford to make 
statements that are not true. You can just bet I know 
right where I am when I'm telling you anything. When 
I sav the Elks are great drinkers, I know what I'm 



118 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

talking about. Wny, one of the Elks asked a well 
known preacher here to join them. Another Elk, stand- 
ing by, said thai; the order was not such as the preacher 
would want to join. There was too much festivity 
about the sessions of the Elks to make them desirable 
for the preacher. Both of the Elks and the preacher 
are forthcoming if there should be any question of this 
.statement. 

c<r VVhy is it, Mr. Jones, that, when you make state- 
ments that reflect rather seriously upon people, you do 
not intimate that there is a strong chance that there 
are exceptions? 

"Because I couldn't afford to make exceptions. I'd 
rather get one sheep penned in with my 100 goats than 
to miss getting the goats. Then, when I've got the 
] 01 in and the gate shut, they are all safe. If I should 
try to open the gate and let that sheep out, all the 
goats would try to crowd along with him. You'd see 
the whole crowd try to get out under the head of ex- 
ceptions, if I'd ever make them." 

Eev. Sam Jones went into one of the railroad offices 
yesterday and purchased a ticket for a friend. While 
the official was fixing up the ticket the evangelist in- 
quired if he had attended any of the services at the 
tabernacle. The railroad man admitted that he had 
not and when asked why, stated that his religion did 
not agree with that professed and preached by Mr. 
Jones. The ticket man said he did not apporve of the 
Jones style and that he had no intention of attending 
any of the meetings to be abused. 



AND THTOTDEEBBOI/flS. 119 

"Look her, Bud, lemme ask you a fair question," said 
Mr. Jones with a twinkle in his eye. "You say your 
religion and mine don't agree. Because you didn't like 
me when I talked twelve years ago. Now, suppose I 
took a trip on your road twelve years ago and found 
the crossties rotten and the trip a rough one. Would 
you think that I knew what I was talking about if I 
told you I wouldn't ride on your line now because of 
my experience then? I'll tell you, Bud, we are gitting 
along powerful well without you and no mistake, and 
you will not be missed if you don't come, but if you 
do we will be glad to see you." The railroad man did 
not retreat a step and the evangelist left the office with 
the same smile on his face. 

Magistrate Isaac Nathans was somewhat abashed yes- 
terday morning when he was requested to issue a war- 
rant for the arrest of Bev. Sam Jones for breach of 
good behavior. When the justice opened his office 
Mr--. EL M., a German resident of Thunderbolt and 
proprietor of a green grocery, was on hand with blood 
in his eye. He declared that he had attended the meet- 
ing for men only at the Tabernacle the night before 
and that Jones had insulted him by calling German 
citizens all sorts of hard names and various kinds of 
Dutchmen. 

The suburbanite said that he did not propose to 
stand for such insults and that he intended to have 
satisfaction, even though he had to apply to the law 
for it. He told the justice that he had been injured 
by the remarks of the evangelist and that his family, 



120 LTGHTNINiG FLASHES 

too, had been grossly insulted. The magistrate asked 
why the complainant had not demanded satisfaction 
when the remarks were made. 'M. stated that such 
had heen his intention, but that when he arose to 
call the Eeverend Samuel down Mayor Nelson of 
Thunderbolt and other of his friends prevented him 
acting as he wished. 

It seems that Mr. M. has some affliction in one 
of his legs, and is not altogether sound in one of his 
lower limbs. "I'll tell you what to do," said the mag- 
istrate. "I don't see how I can do any business with 
a case of this sort. If you have been damaged file suit 
in the City Court against the minister. If only your 
feelings have been damaged go up to the De Soto and 
see Mr. Jones in person. Tell him just what you 
think of his actions and demand an explanation. If 
you do this you can just bet that you will leave there 
with two bum legs instead of one.". 

"I see what it is, you are afraid of Jones," said the 
Thunderbolt man rather warmly. 

"Oh, no I am not afraid of him, but I just don't 
want him, that is all," said the magistrate, and the 
outraged native of Germany left declaring that he 
would find some way to get redress. 



AND THUNDERBOLT'S. 121 

THE SAVING POWER. REV. SAM JONES' 
STORY OF HIS CONVERSION. 

MANY ASKED FOR PRAYER. NUMBER OF PENITENTS IN- 
CREASING AT EVERY MEETING. 

Rain did not keep people away from the Taber- 
nacle. The Divine power that saves, the subject of 
Evangelist's sermon. Told of his own conversion 
and how he had kept the faith. Says 'Ministers have 
been the sextons of grave yards long enough-Church 
members need to be awaked. Seats to be reserved 
for working girls. Germans ask that no attention 
be paid to Miller. 

Twenty-five hundred people attended the service at 
the Tabernacle, despite the bad weather. Rev. Sam 
Jones preached the third time for the day, and with 
unusual success if one might judge by the number of 
those that professed themselves anxious for a Christian 
life. 

In his preliminary remarks Mr. Jones said that the 
interest that brought so many to the meeting despite 
the unfavorable circumstances, was most encouraging 
to those who strove to do good in the meetings. 

"Before the meeting closes I expect to see the most 
marvelous results that this old town has ever witnessed. 
The results already have been very successful, but they 
shall appear but as drops of water to showers before 



122 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

this series of meetings is over. Every service encour- 
ages the faith of my heart and the belief of my soul 
that I will do a great work in Savannah. All my ener- 
gies are centered in this work, and I think and dream 
of nothing else. 

"The best services I have seen have been those of 
rainy nights. On such nights come those that are truly 
interested, while the throng that would be drawn by 
mere idle curiosity is absent." 

The text of the sermon was from Peter, 1 :3-4. "Ac- 
cording as his divine power hath given us all -things 
that pertain unto life and godliness, through the 
knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and 
virtue. 

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and pre- 
cious promises; that by these ye might be partakers 
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption 
that is in the world through lust. 

"I want to say to you that he that takes hold of 
the arm of Almighty 'God is coupled to the thing that 
will make him a man of the highest type, God ? s ideal. 
By simple faith, and not by human strength, he can be 
placed beyond even ^Satanic power. We are sustained by 
the same power that sent the world whirling through 
space, that counts the hairs of your head and al- 
lows no sparrow even to fall until he himself hath signed 
its death warrant. 

"Look at old ocean as it rolls and rocks in its bed ; 
see the cyclones that whirl and toss houses and trees. 
This mighty power is exerted ten thousand times more 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 123 

strongly in the worlds about us, and yet that same 
power we take hold of through Jesus Christ. 

"The man charged with a crime thinks to enhance 
his chance of escape by securing the ablest counsel; 
the sick man feels the safer that he has an experienced 
physician; a man would feel the safer from his enemies 
were he protected by a giant. And these things are 
all very well in their way, but they dwindle and sink 
into insignificance when the earnest penitent soul puts 
itself under the shadow of the Almighty. 

"As we have drifted away from that power, we have 
drifted in to trusting our own resources, though to- 
day the world is nearly ready to admit that humanity 
is but a bruised and broken reed. From the strong 
faith in God we have drifted into creeds; we have 
Theosophy and we have Christian Science and others. 
What we want is the man that walks under the pro- 
tection of God. He is a giant in himself. What we 
need is to quit trusting our own power and to take hold 
on God. 

"I want to say things to you men and I want you 
to hear me. I have known men attempt to practice 
law and fail through lack of ability and resources; 
I have known men try to be physicians, and fail through 
want of adaptability; and so in other walks of life. 
But I look you in the face tonight and say that +here 
is no reason in heaven or earth or hell why any man 
should fail to be a strong true Christian. 

"I was in Wannamaker's store in Philadelphia once, 
and under the escort of Mr. Wannamaker himself, was 



124 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

being shown through the place. He explained the de- 
partments, which are so unmerous and so complete 
that he offered me a premium if I could ask for any- 
thing that he had not in the store. Now, the Father 
in Heaven for four thousand years has ransacked the 
earth for material which he has put between the lids 
of this old book until to-day if any that hunger or 
thirst can not find meat and drink in this book, but 
would ask for something not here, I believe that God 
would give to them a premium that even angels might 
well covet. 

"I 'tell you, brother, if you can but get your eyes 
open and see the equipment that God has given where- 
by you may become an honest, decent, and Christian 
man, you will lock that book in your arms and go 
home shouting for joy. 

"If you or I should miss heaven at last it won't be 
God's fault; it won't be the world's fault, and it won't 
be the devil's fault; but it will be our own fault, that 
we have chosen the way of sin and darkness. Think 
of these things, then say, Til quit these weak and 
whining ways and accept whait will help me to be a 
man and an honor to my church and my country?' 

"Do you want a brother to help you? There is 
Christ on Calvary. Bo you need a father ? There's 
such a one as mortal can not conceive of. Poor, weak 
man, don't you tremble every time you think of your 
future? Eally yourselves tonight; come to God, and 
make yourselves a power for good in -Savannah." 

Mr. Jones then told the story of his own conversion. 



AND THUNDERBOI/TiS. 125 

"By the waywardness of my life, my wife, my father, 
and my friends had about lost hope that I would ever 
change. But one day, the gladdest and best day ever 
sent to me, I threw away all spiritual props, crutches, 
and sticks and reached and caught the power so ener- 
gizing and so nutritious to souls. 

"I went to a little church in Bartow County, but 
I feared, so well were my dissolute habits known, that 
I wouldn't be received. I stood in the congregation 
and felt it almost impossible "to go forward. Some- 
thing in me seemed to say you are too weak, too frail. 
The congregation had sung three verses of the hymn of 
invitation when I caught a grip on the divine power. 

"My grandfather was pastor of the church, and when 
the old man 'took my hand I said, 'Grandfather I take 
this step and consecrate my life, my manhood, my all 
to the cause/ He said 'God bless you, and keep you 
faithful to the end.' Then I went home and said, *Wife 
I won't drink any more. I have said that a thousand 
times before, but I mean it now.' 

"Now, I want 'to tell you, whatever else may be said, 
I was a reformed man from that hour. The pathway 
was so narrow that the bushes, and the trees, the things 
of the old life, nearly touched me as I passed, but I 
kept my faith. Some day when I enter the gates of 
pearl, should that day ever come to me, I want to 
point to Christ and say, 'Glory unto him that gave me 
power to stand.' 

"'I believe in tha<t kind of power as I believe that I 
am standing here preaching, and what's more, I be- 



126 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

Jieve that it's in this building tonight. Brothers, when 
we shall become fully convinced what this power can dc 
for us then shall we get a new life. There is no more 
deadly blow to infidelity than a sight of 'the power that 
raises man from the mire and gives him the wings to 
soar. They can be infidels if they will, and doubt the 
Bible. I find it ten thousand times easier to believe 
the Bible than to doubt it. It has brought me through 
countless trials and temptations and knowing what it 
has done for 'me, should I sink: to the home of the 
damned Fd say that 1 had felt its power." 

Mr. Jones told <the story of Samson, strong and 
virile in the strength of God until he put his head in 
the lap of Delilah, was shorn and became blind. Car- 
ried into captivity, he was the scorn of his enemies. 
But he rededicated himself to God, and when his 
strength had been renewed he pulled down the palace 
of his enemies, killing more then 'than he had ever 
killed before. 

"We ministers of the church have laid our heads in 
the lap of worldliness so that our locks are shorn, and 
our eyes blinded. If power comes back to us like Sam- 
son, we should put our arms about the pillars of dark- 
ness in Savannah, overthrow the temple of sin, and kill 
more enemies in the fall than we have killed all our 
lives before. 

"We want such a power to come upon us tonight as 
shall send every preacher shouting praises down the 
street. 0, for a power that will make eaoh of you a 
flaming evangel. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 127 

"God's going to save men and women here tonight. 
Save some of them that have been in church, but have 
been dead for years. He's going to make you live and 
breathe again. That's what we want; live men and 
women; we've been the sextons of graveyards long 
enough." 

Mr. Jones then called for all that though members 
of the church, felt, and could honestly say that they 
wanted that power, that he had been talking about, to 
come forward. Then in turn he asked for those that 
felt themselves sinners to come forward and so on, 
going through the many classes represented in the con- 
gregation, and concluding with a request that all the 
ministers that felt that they needed more of the divine 
power to come forward to shake hands. All of the 
ministers responded to this offer. 

To the several propositions to the members of the 
congregation there was such a liberal response from 
each class of penitents that, considering the size of 
the congregation this meeting might be called the best 
of the series. 

Tonight and on succeeding nights there will be 
special space reserved for girls, who because em- 
ployed until late, can not get to the meetings in time 
<to secure seats and, hence have hitherto been compelled 
to stand during services. 

Yesterday morning after the regular service had been 
concluded, Mr. Jones was approached by several gen- 
tlemen, Germans, who asked that the evangelist, not 
consider the remarks made about him by H. Miller, 



128 LIGHTING FLASHES 

because they did not think Miller was entitled to speak 
for the Germans of Savannah. 

Despite the bad weather yesterday afternoon several 
hundred people gathered at the tabernacle to hear Kev. 
Sam Jones. It would have been a very good crowd for 
any service; considering the weather it might be called 
excellent. 

The recent unbroken series of meetings had been 
telling on Mr. Jones' strength, and to save himself for 
the night meeting, he addressed the afternoon congre- 
gation from a chair which he placed well to the front 
of the platform. "I sit down," he said, "not because 
I'm lazy, but because it saves me nerve force; you 
can hear me just as well and its more restful for me." 

The text, the speaker selected from Acts, 11 :1 : 
"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they 
were all with one accord, in one place/' "I'm going 
to talk about what preachers call unity of spirit," he 
announced. As a preliminary, however, and as leading 
up to his subject, he told of meeting a secretary of 
the Y. M. C. A. in an Illinois town. This secretary, 
with much perturbation asked him if he did not think 
the world growing worse. "Yes, it is," admitted Mr. 
Jones. "And is not everything going to the bad," con- 
tinued the questioner. "No," said Mr. Jones "It's 
the same in the moral world that it is in the financial 
world; in the one the rich are getting richer and the 
poor poorer, and in the other the good are getting better 
and the bad worse." 

"Often I read now of folks doing things that would 



AMD THUNDERBOLTS. 129 

have scared me to death to have done when I was a 
boy. There's lots of new fashioned deviltry. Why, do 
you know I had never heard of a woman being drunk, 
until I was a great big boy. But only recently a min- 
ister of Atlanta has found it necessary to preach 
against women getting drunk, and if women will get 
drunk in immaculate Atlanta, what will they do in Sa- 
vannah ? 

"Listen ! I never heard of a woman gambling, when 
I was a boy, but bless your soul they will sit up in a 
poker game or any other kind of a game now. Mostly 
it's progressive euchre. They -put up a prize and gam- 
ble for it with all the vim that the men play poker 
and faro. 

* f In another Illinois town some people came to me 
and said that 'the town was so bad they didn't want 
their children raised in it, and they asked me where 
they should go. I said the whole country is alike; and 
so it is to-day, (Savannah is like any other city, and 
all other cities are like Savannah. The trouble is the 
devil's forces were never so strongly organized, never 
so persistent, never so aggressive. The devil's force in 
Savannah is the strongest organization in the whole 
city. Why, the gamblers can come into your courts 
under some sort of an accusation, be fined and go free, 
and the public never knows anything about it. Hit 
one of your dirty politicians and you hit them all. Hit 
one gambling hell and you've got to fight the lot; hit 
one shameless house and they are all concerned. I tell 
you the devil's forces are well organized. Why if you 



130 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

wanted to carry this city for prohibition, money would 
be sent here from forty states 'to help the whiskey men. 
Again you never hear of two gambling houses being- 
arrayed against each other or a saloon righting a saloon. 

"'And in contradiction to this, there never was a 
time when the forces of God Almighty were so scat- 
tered as 'to-day. You hit a Methodist preacher, and a 
Baptist preacher will say, 'Give it to him; he stuck 
his mouth in too soon, anyway/ Hit any other preach- 
er, and there will be a similar remark from one of 
another denomination. There are two things a fellow 
won't do; he won't fight for his boarding house or for 
■the other fellow's religion. 

"See right in this meeting, for instance, there isn't 
half of the preachers that are interested in the move- 
ment, and yet there isn't a one of them with half 
enough sense to say grace that doesn't know that God 
Almighty is in the work. I would like to stand at 
the bar of judgment and hear some of your little 
preachers say why they wasn't in the movement. 
There'll be an interesting time 'gwine on then. 

"One young lady told me the other day her father 
didn't attend the meetings because he didn't believe 
in revivals. Well,' I said, 'your father and the devil 
agree on that, anyway; I don't know how they are on 
other points.' 

"Now, I'm not quarreling with any pastor that don't 
want to come. They may talk about methods and all 
that, but they'll see something different on that final 
day. And I want to say to you right now there's no 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 131 

preacher in this town cleaner in his life than the man 
that's speaking to yon; and there's none that stands 
better in the community than I stand in Cartersville, 
where I have lived for thirty years. Methods, me- 
thods — I tell you the devil's got Savannah for hell, 
and he's carrying his point, too. 

"Now listen to me ! 'And they were all with one ac- 
cord.' Why, I've seen pasitors of the same denomina- 
tion in one town try to steal members from each other. 
Ain't it so Brother Cook? he said, turning to that 
pastor, 'Haven't you had that happen?' Mr. Cook re- 
plied tha't it was so. 'Now,' he continued, 'if a Me- 
thodist can run into a Baptist pond, or can break into 
a Presbyterian circle it ain't so bad, but it's awful to 
steal the fish that is already "cotched" by the other fel- 
low/ 

'We're all selfish. God has implanted selfishness in 
man to make him take care of himself. If it wasn't 
for the pain that he put in the finger of the small 
boy he would whittle the finger away instead of whitt- 
ling white pine. This thing, selfishness, was implanted 
for a wise purpose. We're all selfish, hut none of us 
is fit to be a Christian until we're able to put it down 
and put our foot on it and say, 'Now be still, or I'll 
mash you.' 

"There are some people that can't do anything for 
God; they're too busy taking care of themselves; they 
can't expose themselves. Why I reckon the Lord's 
got the sickest and feeblest crowd in the world. The 
devil can put the lash on the back of his crew and "trot 



132 LMHTNIN1G FLA'SEPES 

them knee-deep through mud to hell and they'll never 
grunt. But the Lord's crowd is so feeble. 'Brother 
Cook/ he said again addressing that minister, liow 
many of your members come to prayer meeting?' Mr. 
Cook replied, mentioning only a very small part of 
his congregation, and then Mr. Jones grimly remarked 
that he didn't know what was the matter with the good 
people of the town, unless it was that the devil had 
them so long he nearly drove them to death before the 
Lord got hold of them.. 

"Then the speaker went for the preachers. 'Some 
of you preachers,' he said, 'preach twice a day on Sun- 
day .and then take Monday off. You are so tired, 
nerves all upset, tell your wife she mustn't let the 
children disturb you; you big lazy devils. When you 
ought to be preaching Christ and Him crucified, you 
are preaching John Smith and him dignified.' 

"iSome of you care too much for your reputation. 
You say ' my reputation is such that I can't afford to 
be criticised by the newspapers or by any man.' Why 
I've been preaching in this town for forty years and 
nobody can say anything against me or, concluded Mr. 
Jones mockingly, 'For me.' 

"I understand there are a lot of hypocrites in the 
churches who say 'now that I hear Sam Jones has 
quit his slang I'll go to hear him.' 'Well you just 
watch Sam Jones when thev do come* There'll be a 
picnic." 

The address was concluded by Mr. Jones with an 
earnest appeal for all good people *to get together "0 



A^D THWDEflftBOLTS. 133 

brother! if you could tie the forces of God together as 
the devil's forces are tied we'd sweep the world for 
Christ. Friends, hear me, we .want fellows that will 
step forward and say 'I'm in for all/ Get in the fight 
and put your soul and energy into it. T always did 
iny level best, no matter what I did, even when I drank 
whiskey I tried to drink all there was of it. Unified 
forces put to work to try to save this town — that is 
what we want." 

Mr. Jones then asked all that felt that they had 
received a blessing or those that wanted a blessing 
either for themselves or for some one else to get up 
and say so. Hundreds accepted the invitation. 



134 LIGHTNING MiAlSfHJTCS 



A THIEF DISGUISED. REfV. SAM JONES' DE- 
NTJNCIATIOiN OF THE PROFEISiSIONAL 
GAMBLER. DIFFERENCE IN METH- 
ODS. 

DISTINGUISHES PROFESSIONAL GAMBLERS AND THE PRO- 
FESSIONAL PICKPOCKETS. 

Officials who permit continuance of public gam- 
ing evil denounced as perjured scoundrels, who 
curee and disgrace the earth. Warm roast for 
Chief of Police. Sam Jones says he needs no pro- 
tection and doesn't want it. Let ipolicemen attend 
the tabernacle meeting. A forceful sermon preach- 
ed from the text : "The wages of sin is death." 

Rev. Sam Jones preached to a congregation of seven 
or eight thousand men, women and children, that 
packed the Park Tabernacle and its surroundings. It 
was a sermon that was bluntly forcible and eloquent, 
that -teemed with expressions entirely characteristic of 
the speaker and that went right to the point. 

It was upon the text: "The wages of sin is death, 
but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord." It was, as Mr. Jones announced 
in its inception, a sermon sternly practical, intended 
for the comprehension and the consideration of think- 
ing men in every walk of life. It was not for what 
Mr. Jones is wont to refer as "trundle bed trash," but 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 135 

for men, full grown and in the consciousness of their 
sin. That it carried home the alternate breathless in- 
terest and loud applause with which the audience re- 
ceived it and the numbers that, at -the conclusion of 
the services, thronged the space that was cleared in 
front of the platform, expressing their penitence, 
promising reformation and good works and bowing 
their heads in prayer and contrition, sobbing, con- 
victed in their own hearts, disgusted with their past 
life and showing it, but with the light of a new-born 
hope shining in their eyes, amply and fully attested. 

'*! am going 'to talk to you tonight, prefaced the 
evangelist on an exceedingly practical subject. The 
majority of you who listen to my voice are men who 
work for wages and the wages you are to receive are 
the great thing in life to you. The accounts of strikes 
that fill our newspapers show the differences that are 
constantly springing up between employer and em- 
ployee; every morning there are lurid columns of de- 
scription of trouble growing out of this perpetual point 
of difference. Most of them spring from the lack of 
a proper understanding of 'the conditions of employ- 
ment. 

"There are two real questions for consideration in 
any contract of employment, and if they were asked by 
the employee and answered by the employer, many of 
the disagreements that otherwise result would be avoid- 
ed. They are first, 'What kind of work do you want 
me to do V and, second, What will you pay for it ?' 
Nine-tenths of all labor troubles could be avoided if 



136 LIGHTNING MLA1SHBS 

there had been a clear understanding with which to 
begin. 

"Some of you here say you have never worked for 
wages, that you have never been employed by anyone, 
that you are responsible for what you do in the world 
only to yourselves. You boast that you live under the 
freest government on earth, where every man is privi- 
leged to work out his own destiny. 

"But in a very important sense you are all engaged 
in labor, and you all serve a master, you are all work- 
ing for wages — and there is a pay-day coming. Who is 
your spiritual and moral master? Are you serving 
God or the devil? God has said, 'No man can serve 
two masters.' 'He that is not for me is against me.' 
If you are not serving God, then you must be serving 
the devil. 

"Now which are you doing. Let's get down to busi- 
ness, for this is a business matter. Does the devil 
want men and women to do his work on earth? Yes. 
What does he want them to do? Why, he wants some 
to sell whiskey, he wants some to drink it, some to 
lie, some to steal, some to gamble, some to be vulgar 
and degraded in their life, practice and character — to 
do the things that will blast and ruin your happiness 
in this life, drag you down into the mud, blast and 
doom your character here and damn you in the end. 

"Not only, that, but he has got thousands of men 
in this community who are doing his bidding. Thou- 
sands of them. They are standing behind counters 
and dishing out liquid damnation to the y^ung men 



AM) THUNDBEIBOfLTS. 137 

of this town; they are standing in front of the coun- 
ter and making it. All over this land men are mak- 
ing, selling and drinking whiskey; I tell you to-night, 
I would rather lie down on a track and let the biggest 
engine in the state run over me and crush me from 
head to foot before I would make or sell or drink a 
drop of it. 

"The devil has men gambling. There isn't a more 
harmful, debasing character in this community than 
the professional gambler, for he not only robs the poor 
fools who allow themselves to be caught in his glitter- 
ing net, but he teaches them to rob their employers. 
When a man gets to be a professional gambler he :• 
already a thief. The difference between a gambler and 
a pickpocket is that the gambler is willing to let you 
sit down and watch while you are being robbed, and 
the pickpocket rather objects to your 'knowing what he 
is doing. 

"Oh, it's the devil's work, and when public officers, 
sworn to enforce the law, are content to sit down and 
smile while it continues, they brand themselves tiie 
most consummate, perjured scoundrels that ever dis- 
graced and cursed God's world. The statement was 
followed by a great outburst of applause. It seemed 
to alarm a dog outside the Tabernacle, for he howled 
dismally. 'It's enough,' continued the speaker, as the 
applause subsided, 'to make the very dogs howl.' Then 
the rapturous appreciation of the audience broke out 
again. 

"There are policy shops all over the city; there are 



138 LIGHTNIFG FLASHES 

gambling dens of every kind everywhere, and yet the 
officials of this town are as ignorant of their existence 
as if they never existed. They can't find 'em. Why, 
I would just as soon take my old pointer dog, punch 
out his eyes and wax up his nose and put him out in 
the field to hunt birds, as to set the police force of 
this town to hunting for something they don't want 
to find. 

''"Look at the chief of police. He's got his men 
penned up at the barracks every night that I speak 
in this house, on the pretext that they are needed to 
prevent disorder here. I called him up yesterday and 
asked him why he did it, and he said he had explained 
his reasons to Bascom Anthony and that Basoom had 
said they were entirely satisfactory. And I asked 
Bascom what reason for this course had been given and 
he told me none at all. None at all! 

"I'll tell you why he wants those men shut up and 
why he keeps them shut up. He's afraid some of them 
will come out here and hear the word of God. I don't 
care what they do, but I don't want them locked up on 
any pretext that I need their protection. I want every- 
one in this congregation, who thinks it an outrage that 
these men should be restrained of their liberty and who 
will unite with me in a demand that this outrage be 
stopped, to rise." Practically all of the seven or eight 
thousand, who were not already standing, arose to their 
feet. 

"Why! they are almost as unanimous in making 
this demand upon the chief of police as they were that 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 139 

your Mayor has a conscience. In a cow's horn," he 
added with an appreciative nod and wink. 

"Then they are going around here and saying these 
policemen must be kept at the barracks to protect Sam 
Jones. It's a lie — I don't want any protection. Let 
me tell you, Bud, Sam Jones is- going to tote his own 
skillet, Dutchman or no Dutchman. There was much 
laughter and applause at this sally, and as it quieted 
down Mr. Jones as if struck by an afterthought, said: 

"Maybe they are holding those men there until the 
Mayor can decide whether Sam Jones is a menace to 
the morals of the town, so that if he is he can be sup- 
pressed. Suppressed ! 'Suppress me ! Why, that 
crowd couldn't suppress me after I'm dead and buried, 
let alone now, when I'm alive and kicking. 

"And, Bud, don't you worry about this protection 
business. If any of you fellows out there think I need 
protection, just step up this way and cut the buck a 
little. 

"The devil is at work among the lost women. God 
save a city from the pollution of lost women and their 
degrading lives; poor, fallen creatures, who are de- 
bauched themselves and who in turn debauch everything 
with which they come in contact. 

"And the devil is at work among your business men. 
He has them overworking and underpaying the clerks, 
on whose labor depends the success of their business. 
One section of this Tabernacle is reserved for work- 
ing women and I take off my hat to them, as I stand 
here tonight. I have more respect for you than I have 



i 



140 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

for all the high-flying dudines that curse this country 
from one end of it to the other." 

From this point Mr. Jones turned to a description 
of the blessings that follow the acceptance of Christ's 
mediation, the following of his precepts and the adop- 
tion of a Christian mode of life. "If the devil degrades 
and disgraces man every day why G-od uplifts and 
helps him. A sinner ought to be hard to find. It ought 
to ibe difficult to 'find one sinner, instead of twenty 
thousand in Savannah. How do you account for it? 
What's the matter? How is it that any man is fool 
enough to be a sinner and serve the devil? 

"Well, a man who'll drink is a fool. A first-class 
fool or a second-class one, or any class of fool, for a 
good long ways down the list, wouldn't touch a drop 
of liquor. He has to be about a tenth-rate fool be- 
fore he will put the vile stuff into his mouth. 

■"But the biggest fool on earth is the woman who will 
mix a man's toddy and make it sweet for him — who 
will act as saloonkeeper for a damnable old red-nosed 
husband. Now mind, sis, I didn't say you are mean; 
I just said you are a fool. Your trouble is above your 
eyes, and if you ever get in deep water, don't you be 
afraid your head's going to sink. Just put up your 
handkerchief for a sail, and you'll get to port at last." 

A story that brought tears to many eyes, as it was 
told by the evangelist, but which printed words can 
not do justice, was that of the drunken husband, who 
tottered from a low groggery across the street to the 
miserable hovel he called home. His wife was in one 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. . 141 

room, his little child, in rags and dirt, was playing 
about the floor of that which he entered. The child 
shrank from its father and the drunken vagabond, with 
a curse upon his lips and in his heart, raised his foot 
and kicked the little one in the head, until the blood 
and brains of his child oozed out on the floor. 

The husband staggered back across the street to the 
groggery he had just quitted, calling again for whiskey 
with which to drown his recollection of the scene he 
had just witnessed, and as he left the room in which 
the tragedy had occurred, his wife entered it. Sbe 
saw the lifeless body of her child and raising it in her 
arms, followed her husband across- the street. 

"As she entered the saloon with the corpse in her 
arms, her husband raised the glass to his lips. Then, 
as he caught sight of her, the blood rushed to his heart 
and his brain and then poured from his lips and he 
fell to the floor, dead. The woman pitched the body 
of the child on the counter and then said to the saloon- 
keeper: 'You have murdered my husband and my 
child; now take a dagger and plunge it into my own 
bosom and complete your cruel work.' 

"And you, you toper who call yourself a gentleman, 
you can suffer drink to be sold, while such things be. 
You, old rednosed scoundrel you. Are you setting back 
there tonight, Dutch? If you are, you'd better get up 
on your hind legs and talk out. 

"I've got nothing to say against the Dutchman. On 
the contrary, I brag on decent Dutchmen. It's the 
mean ones I'm after, just as I'm after mean Americans, 



142 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

audi mean men of every other nation, who live in this 
country. I'm going to keep it up; I'm going to 
denounce everything that violates law or connives at 
its violation, if they shoot me so full of holes I'll look 
like the top of a pepper box. 

^Gentlemen! Gentlemen! said the evangelist, with 
scorn unspeakable, a gentleman never entered 1 a saloon 
in his life and never would enter one. Nobody but a 
dirty, lousy, rednosed devil would think of it." 

'Mr. Jones told a story of the Mayor of some city in 
the central part of the State, who had met him at the 
depot on his arrival and driven him over the town. He 
had noticed that there were eighteen saloons and that 
some of them bore the sign, "For gentlemen only." 
When he spoke that night he had commented on these 
saloons and these signs and said he didn't understand 
how those that said they were "For Gentlemen Only" 
made a living for their proprietors. 

He told how the wife of the Mayor, at whose home 
he was entertained, had stated that her husband was 
in the habit of entering saloons and had resented 
what had been said on the subject. ''When I asked 
him about it, he said he had been drinking all his life, 
but that, with 'God's help, he never would again. I 
broke one dog of sucking eggs, and I hope to break a 
good many more, right in this town. I'm going to 
do it." 

"They talk about licking me because I say nobody 
but a disreputable old scoundrel would drink whiskey 
and go home to his wife in a drunken condition. Why, 



AiND THUNDERBOLTS. 143 

I'm only trying to make you a better husband and to 
make you act decent. 'Suppose you did lick me, 
wouldn't you have a nice story to go homo and tell 
your wife? Why, Sam Jones tried to make me de- 
cent, and I jumped) on him ,and just pummelled the life 
out of him/ That would make a nice story, wouldn't 
it? 

"Come to think of it, though, I don't believe you 
could get up a fight with me. Not if you are that 
mean. It's like what the possum said of the skunk, 
when the skunk wanted to fight him and he walked 
away. 'I'm not afraid of the skunk,' he said, 'but I 
know if I fight him I couldn't go home to my family.' " 

Mr. Jones said he had no respect for the preacher 
who delivered a sermon on temperance and talked about 
its evils with trembling voice and trembling knees. 
"I'll say what I think if I die for it. If they ride 
me out of town on a rail, I shan't care much. I'll 
be like the Irishman, who had a similar experience and 
who said: 'Begorry, gintlemiu, I'd as soon walk, if 
it was not for onner of the things.' " 

Mr. Jones drew a forceful comparison from the 
stories of the lives and deaths of two contrasting per- 
sonalities, between the one who served the devil and 
the other one who served and loved God. They illus- 
trated the text, that, "The wages of sin is death, but 
the gift of 'God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ, 
our Lord." He supplemented this with a sympathetic 
commentary on the parable of the Prodigal 'Son. It 
was all intended to show that the life of the good man 



144 LIGHTNING MASHES 

and the good woman was the happy one and that of 
the sinner miserable here and doomed to be followed 
by a fearful penalty in the life eternal. He paid high 
tribute to the virtues of the Jewish people, which he 
illustrated with a page from the life of Max iScheurer, 
a young Jew who lives in his town. 

"You young men out there, said the preacher sud- 
denly, f you want to get a move on yourself. You who 
are 'bucking the tiger, and using your money to "buy 
policy lottery tickets and trying to beat faro and shoot- 
ing craps — You'd better mend your ways, Bud. You're 
a fool. Why if I dug everything out of my skull and 
filled up with the sawdust that is between these seats, 
I'd have more sense than you' 

"And you silly dancing men and girls, you bucks 
and buckesses, you want to get started in another di- 
rection. But I don't know: Most of you wear a No. 
3 hat and a No. 7 shoe, and my idea always has been 
that the biggest part of a person ought to move around." 

After the conclusion of the sermon a space in front 
of the platform was cleared and those who felt them- 
selves penitent and anxious to lead a better life, were 
asked to come forward and occupy them. They were 
soon [filled. Then Mr. Jones asked the men in the au- 
dience, who would promise to drink no more to come 
forward and a hundred and fifty or two hundred young 
men and old came forward, grasped his hand and with 
every outward indication of determination to keep their 
word, made him the promise for which he asked. 

On Saturday night the services were exclusively for 



AND THIMDEOROBOI/DS. 145 

colored people, the entire tabernacle was reserved for 
them. Mr. Jones made a special appeal to the colored 
people who were present to come and bring their 
friends. 

"I've been tanning white skins all the week, and if 
you get your crowd here on Saturday night, there'll 
be a few black ones hung up to dry. I want you good 
preachers, speaking to the colored ministers, to be on 
hand, and if you'll hold while I skin there'll be coon 
ekins to sell in this town that night." 



146 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



PREACHED ON PRAYING. SAM JONES JIMP- 
ED HEAVILY ON DEMOCRATS AND 
REPUBLICANS. 

The tabernacle was a little more than filled by those 
who gathered to hear Rev. Sam Jones. Women and 
children predominated, though there was a fair sprink- 
ling of men in the audience. The sermon was of anti- 
political sort, and it was warm. It touched up the 
Democrats, but played no favorites. The Republicans 
came in for just about as much as the preacher levelled 
at their opponents. 

The evangelist announced that he would preach upon 
the "Philosophy of Prayer." "I believe it's a man's 
duty, as well as his highest privilege/' to pray. The 
man or woman who understands the philosophy of 
prayer is in a position to get what is wanted from God. 
There's not much praying done nowadays. Most of 
us are satisfied just to say our prayers; we don't 
pray them. Mothers teach their children to say ? and 
not to pray, their prayers. The difference between 
saying and praying prayers is infinite. A man can go 
home at nights after having swindled scores of peo- 
ple during the day, say his prayers and lie down to 
sleep. A man can go home and pray after having told 
a dozen lies during the day. A woman can go home 
and pray after having her tongue busy the live-long 
day with her gossip. But that's not the sort of pray- 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 147 

ing that's wanted. God Almighty won't listen to a 
rascal praying. 

"You've got to mean what you pray. Your heart 
has got to be in it. If you don't mean what you pray, 
you might just as well get down on your knees and 
say: 

"Mary had a little lamb, 

Its fleece was white as cotton, 

And everywhere that Mary went, 

The lamb would go atrottin.' — Amen.'' 

Mr. Jones gave an illustration of the impossibility 
of praying properly as long as actions are not what 
they should be by comparing the process to one of tele- 
graphy, showing that messages can not be sent when 
there are obstructions on the wire, and that prayers 
will not be heard when those offering them have not 
properly observed those pre-requisites that are de- 
manded of them by God. One of the obstructions that 
was mentioned was voting with either of the political 
parties when the objects sought are not of a character 
to appeal to a Christian. 

"Can any man, vote with this dirty, lousy Demo- 
crat gang in Savannah and be a Christian? Can a 
horse thief be honest? And the Republicans are just 
as bad. The only difference between a Republican 
and a Democrat is that one is high cockolorum and the 
other is low cockolorum. A man asked me once if T 
was a Democrat or a Republican. I told him that I was 
neither, that I was a gentleman. If I am going to do 



148 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

any prayin' I don't want either a Democrat or a Re- 
publican around me to help. I had just as soon have 
an old billy goat. Do you believe that a man can 
vote with this crowd in Savannah and be a Christian? 
If you do, you've got more sense than I have. I 
don't believe it." 

In this connection, Mr. Jones turned around several 
times to Mr. Anthony, asking him if he supported him 
in his statements about the politicians, and the parties. 
Mr. Anthony did not speak out good and strong in 
every case, and one time he said nothing at all. It 
was when Mr. Jones had asked him one that was just 
a little too hard. "Bascom says he ain't playin' now," 
remarked Mr. Jones. 

"I would just as soon think of going among the 
icebergs of the Northern ocean to seek an orange tree 
in full blossom, as to go before the Georgia Legisla- 
ture and seek to get any measure that would help reli- 
gion through. Can you vote with that crowd and be 
a Christian? What do you think about it, Bascom? 
Are you scared? (getting no answer). If you Bap- 
tists, Methodists and Presbyterians would combine you 
could drive the rascals out. The Baptists, Methodists 
and Presbyterians in Georgia are responsible for every 
drop of liquor that is sold in the State, for every man 
who goes to hell through the agency of that liquor and 
for every home that is ruined by it. If you can stop 
a thing and won't, then you are responsible for it. 
I don't want to make these preachers say 'amen' to 
that, because you people would be up against them, 



AM) THUNDtEKBiOI/TS. 149 

You old, rednosed devil, you; you would say that you 
don't like such talk from your ministers and that you 
would not give any more money to the church. 

"This is a Democratic city, isn't it Bascom? Yes, 
it's a Democratic city; and are you people proud of the 
gang you put in office with your last vote? Are you 
proud of all of them, from the Mayor to the con- 
stable? Are you proud of the little political boss who 
leads you around? If you are, then you must feel like 
a dog, or you don't feel natural. Sister, you go home 
and tell your husband what I say, and you tell him 
you agree with me, too. Tell the old rascal that he's 
either got to change his politics or get himself another 
wife. If you people are proud of the gang you put 
in with your last vote, then there ain't no use for you 
to pray. You've got to clean up from head to heel 
and live as you ought if you want to pray." 



150 LIGHTMN1G ELA$HES 



GAVE THEM 'GOSPEL. SAM. JONES EXHORT- 

ED HIS HEARERS NOT TO WAIT TO BE 

SAVED. GOD SHOULD BE THEIR HOPE. 

HIS SERMON BROUGHT MANY FORWARD WHO GAVE 
THEIR NAMES. 

The evangelist considered the various excuses 
that those who are not of God give for not joining 
the church. Took his place with those making ex- 
cuses and considered the questions from their point 
of view. Time to consider, waiting for the church 
to get right and complaint of not being fit, given as 
some of the excuses offered. 

The results for which the ministers have been pray- 
ing were apparent after this meeting at the tabernacle. 
Evangelist Jones called for penitents, and they came 
forward in throngs. They were asked to shake hands 
with the ministers, who wonld take their names and 
addresses and look them up later, to afford them what 
spiritual help and consolation they might. 

Mr. Jones told the penitents that they were not -join- 
ing the church by giving in their names. It was merely 
to afford the ministers an opportunity to meet any 
who were touched,, and who might be influenced by 
them. For nearly half an hour, the ministers were 
kept busy taking the names, and the choir, led alter- 
nately by Mr. Tillman and Mr. Ramsay, sang hymns 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 151 

that were not without effect upon those who were seek- 
ing courage to act upon the impulse that had come 
into their hearts through attention to the words of the 
evangelist. 

The evangelist's sermon was straight gospel. It 
was without frills. Earnest, touching and practical, 
it went deep into the hearts of his hearers, as was 
evinced by the numbers that sought to grasp his hand 
after the sermon and give their names to the ministers. 
One brother, with tears in his eyes and a tremor in 
his voice, found Mr. Jones, after others had ceased 
to press about him, and told him that he wanted to 
take his hand, as he had heard so much about him. 
''Brother Jones, I want to thank you for that sermon. 
Jt did me good. I drove in with my little sister here 
from my home, sixteen miles in the country, just to 
hear you preach. I am glad I came." 

'Comparatively little of the temporal tinge could be 
seen in the sermon. Mr. Jones probably kept as re- 
mote from local references and scathing denunciatious 
of the administration of the affairs of Savannah, the 
gambling and other excesses, as he had in any of his 
talks in Savannah. He invited the patient hearing 
of the congregation, which filled the tabernacle, urging 
the people to determine in their hearts that they would 
be religious, for religion can not come until one has 
determined to get it. 

"What wait I for ? my hope is in God/' was the text. 
"What," the evangelist asked, "in view of all the sur- 
roundings, do men wait for? That is the question." 



152 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

And the preacher considered it from the point of view 
of those propounding the question to themselves, be- 
coming one of them and seeking, with them, to for- 
mulate answers to considerations that hold them back 
from acknowledgment of God. 

"I'm waiting for time to consider, some of you will 
say," said Mr. Jones, 'don't want to be hurried into 
as great a thing as this. I don't want to rush into 
it and then have a great deal of time on my hands 
to repent.' What do you want more time to consider? 
Whether it is better to do right than wrong, to be 
good than bad, to go to hell than to heaven? Some of 
you settled this question, ten, twenty, even forty years 
ago. A sensible man ought to have considered and 
settled it before he was ten years old. The Lord says 
the first thing a man ought to do is to seek the king- 
dom of 'God. 

"You can't talk about waiting until tomorrow. Did 
you ever see tomorrow? No, and you never will. You 
can see to-day and you can look back on yesterday. 
You can't see tomorrow, though. Neighbor, you don't 
want any time. What you want is to get a move on 
you. You want to git down on your knees in this 
sawdust and say 'God have mercy on me, a sinner,' 
that's what you want to do, and stop goin' round here 
talkin about wantin' time. 

"Here comes a man talking to me about wanting 
to wait until the church gits right. Oh, no, he don't 
want to mix up with that gang that's in the church. 
No, sir, too many hypocrites in there for him. He 



AM) THUNDERBOLTS. 153 

wants the church to be what it ought to be before he 
has anything to do with it. 'Can't get him to mixing 
up with the people like there are in the church. I'll 
tell you what, old fellow, you'll be in hell a million 
years before that happens. Don't you sit down and 
wait for the church to get right. Yours is just the 
sort of gang that furnishes those same hypocrites, too. 
There ain't one of these sorry members of the church 
in Savannah that didn't come out of your gang. You 
can have them back whenever you want them, too. 

"Now ain't that a nice fix for you to be in — waitin' 
for the church to git right. You let them hypocrites 
get in your way, do you? Well, I'm sorry for that. 
If they git in your way they git ahead of you, for 
nobody can get in your way behind you. There you 
are, behind the hypocrites, while you stay out with that 
song of yours about waitin' for the church to git right. 

"Sifted down, the whole thing is: Every man's un- 
der obligations to do right, church or no church. There 
was a hypocrite even among the apostles, and if there's 
one in your church, Brother Nisbet, you are only in 
the apostolic succession. We've got more of that sort 
of apostolio succession than any other, for you can 
count upon about one out of every twelve of the church 
members being hypocrites. Waitin' for the church to 
get right. 'God has called on all to work in His vine- 
yard, and, some cussin' and some drinkin', you are 
sitting up on the fence, you old sinner, you; and you 
won't get down and take your hoe and help us clean the 
weeds out of the vineyard. 



154 LIGHTXMG FLASHES 

"I wish men had as much sense about religion as 
they have about other things. You, sister, get up 
with a sick headache, you don't feel like moving, but 
more like staying in bed. It is agony to you to go 
on with your housework, but you do it, and you de- 
serve more credit for it than if you had remained in 
bed with your headache. That's what you would rather 
have done, so are you not a hypocrite? You doctor 
over there. You have gone out at dead of night to 
see a patient, when it was cold and raining. You de- 
serve the more credit for doing it. You didn't want 
to, but you did. Are you not a hypocrite? You broth- 
er, down there; you got dunned by a collector to- 
day. You paid the bill, but did you want to pay it? 
Were you not a hypocrite? I tell you, brethren, the 
old sinner who comes slowly forward, not wanting to 
a bit, and declares for God deserves more credit -than 
the old fellow who comes shouting a mile high. 

"Then there'll come a man talking about his feel- 
ings. He's waiting for the right feeling to get hold 
of him before he gives himself to God. When a man's 
honest about this, I can get him all the feeling he 
wants. If some of the folks here will just stop and 
look back on their back tracks they can get all the 
feeling they are after. Just let them think about all 
the meanness they have done ; think about all the mean- 
ness they have done their God. You can sit down and 
talk about waiting for feeling; you can't say anything 
about waiting to be a fool. There ain't no trouble 
about that. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 155 

"Here comes somebody else. 'Well, Brother Jones/ 
he says, 'You ain't hit me yet. I ain't fit to have reli- 
gion.' You hear that? Ain't fit. That shows what 
some people know about religion. They don't know 
that when they think they ain't fit is just the time 
when they ought to he a coming. You might pick out 
the best lawyer in the city, and he wouldn't have any 
sense at all about religion. He wouldn't know any 
more about it than the most ignorant nigger. If I'd 
say to him, ^Why don't you join the church?' he'd s<ay 
to me, 'I ain't fit.' Now if I say to old Uncle Tom 
over there, 'Uncle Tom, why don't you join the church? 
he'd say 'cause I ain't fitten.' That's all the difference 
there is between them. One would say fit and the 
other would say fitten. Suppose I should ask some 
dirty tramp to sit down and have something to eat 
with me. He'd say he wasn't fitten, because his hands 
were so dirty. Suppose I'd offer him water, soap and a 
towel, and he'd say he wasn't fitten to wash.' It's the 
same way sometimes when you ask a man to come up 
and get saved. 'No,' he says, I ain't fitten.' Come 
up, then and get fitten. 'No, I ain't fitten to get 
fitten.' 

'"You've been getting right at a lot of these folks, 
Brother Jones, but you haven't hit me yet,' some man's 
saying. 'I'm waitin' to get religion enough before I 
start to take me right into heaven without a stop.' 
That's a wile of the devil. He's always turning up 
with that argument. He was right at my elbow with 
it thirty years ago. That's a way he's got, trying to 



156 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

discourage you. When an engineer wants to run his 
locomotive 100 miles, does he wait until he gets up 
enough steam for the whole trip? No, he don't. If 
he did, he'd burst that engine into a thousand pieces. 
He just gets up enough steam to get her going, and 
then she generates steam for herself on the way. Oh, 
the flimsy excuses men make when salvation is held 
out to them, hut waiting for them to take it. You 
just say that your hope's in God. The fellow who 
will put his hope there will conquer everything that 
stands in the way.' " 



AM) THUNJDERQBOiLTS. 157 



RiEV. SAM JONES DON'T STOP SHOUT O'F 
THE WORD LIE. 

WILL BREAK UP RESERVE. THREATENED TO RETURN TO 
SAVANNAH AND GET IN POLITICS. 

Grave preachers who have not entered into the 
meetings several thrusts. Peripatetic dudes in 
some of the f pulpits in Savannah. Do religion more 
harm than the dirtiest saloon keepers by not preach- 
ing in accord with the Bible. Many penitents went 
forward during the after service. 

•Save for the one night when he preached to men 
only, Rev. Sam Jones has not had a larger congrega- 
tion than that which filled the tabernacle and stood 
about it at this service. It was an earnest meeting, 
too, nearly everybody remaining for the after service 
and the communion with God to which they were in- 
vited by the evangelist. 

The close of the service was touching. The hardest 
hearts were impressed. "A heart/' said one of the 
preachers, "must be of iron to withstand the appeal 
that there is in that spectacle." Seats immediately in 
front of the platform had been cleared for the peni- 
tents who came forward in numbers. They flocked 
about the evangelist, grasping his hand and recalling 
biblical pictures of the apostles as the new people of 
'Christ gathered about them for the benediction. 



158 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

'From the touch, of the hand of the evangelist, the 
penitents moved to the seats — men, women and chil- 
dren intent upon the consideration of the new life upon 
which they were entering and bending themselves to the 
will and determination to follow the prompting of 
that voice that had spoken within them, demanding 
that they turn from the ways of the wicked and give 
themselves, for the salvation of their immortal souls, 
to God. All were urged to come forward, whether 
the youngest child in the great gathering or the oldest 
man. People of many sorts and conditions responded 
to the invitation, sitting with bowed heads, some with 
the tears coursing down their cheeks, while, with feel- 
ings played upon by the eloquence and warmth of the 
evangelist, they gave ear both to him and to the min- 
isters who bent over them, giving words of comfort 
and of counsel. Here was a little boy of ten, with face 
seriously set and his thoughts upon things that were 
strangers to his childish mind until that time. There 
was a young girl, who, perhaps only the night before 
had been enjoying the dance and the pleasures that 
the man who had converted her abhors. Upon another 
seat was a habitue of the Police Court, a man known 
to the officers of the law as an old offender, one whosA 
custom it is to get drunk about as often as the thirty- 
day sentences that are placed upon him expire. He, 
too, had felt the marvelous power that bends multi- 
tudes, and was swaying and rocking under the emotion 
that had been created within him. 

There were but few pews, comparatively, cleared 



AM) THUNDERBOLTS. 159 

for the penitents after the opening service. As those 
'touched, to the heart filled the pews, the evangelist 
walked back into the great crowd, grasping still more 
hands and causing still more names to be given to the 
preachers, who will seek out the converts and endeavor 
to make them identify themselves with some church. 

Rev, John D. Jordan, pastor of the First Baptist 
Church, prefaced the collection with an appeal for 
greater generosity. The money question, he said, has 
been left in abeyance in connection with the revival 
meetings. Mr. Jones and Mr. Stuart, he said, came 
to 'Savannah for the salvation of souls, and not for 
money. They will pay for their support while here, 
but that the preachers do not want them to do. The 
preachers themselves, Dr. Jordan said, w?ll give all 
they can afford to give and have been doing so, but 
they would like to see grateful and spontaneous ap- 
preciation of the work that has been done by the evan- 
gelists shown by a liberal contribution. He asked for 
a substantial testimonial of the appreciation by the 
people of Savannah for what has been done for their 
spiritual welfare by the evangelists and what was done 
in the construction of the tabernacle for their physical 
comfort. 

Mr. Jones announced that Mr. Charles D. Tillman, 
upon request, would sing "The Beckoning Hand," but 
first the minister delivered himself in this wise : "I 
thank God for the evidence that is given me of the power 
of these meetings. I have seen the good that they 
have accomplished. On every side is it made clear to 



160 LIGHTNING PLAiSHEiS 

me that Savannah is being uplifted and bettered by 
the power of the work of God. The ministers meet 
me in my room at the hotel and relate instances to 
me to show what has been done/' 

Just here Mr. Jones made a little sally that elicited 
laughter. "I used to think," he said, "that preachers 
were angels. But I've got over that. They are just 
men. Pve slept with them, and I know what they 
are. Yes, sir, worked with them, when they had their 
coats off, and I didn't see no wings. I don't know how 
it is with the Pope, but I know that preachers are not 
infallible. I've got nothing against any of these 
preachers in Savannah who have not joined in the 
meetings. I am like the boy when his girl told him 
she'd have him; he said he didn't have nothin' agin 
anybody in the world. The preachers have tried to 
keep the people away, but I haven't got anything agin 
them. They tried to cut down the crowds and I've 
had to preach to just a few faithful people, but that's 
all right. ; But I'll tell you. I've preached to more 
people in Savannah than the whole bunch of those 
preachers ever have or ever will. They'll pray for the 
meetings, proba'bly just like the preacher in California 
prayed for them, though he wouldn't attend them him- 
self, because he didn't like slang. I am 'for all Sa- 
vannah and for God." 

"Tomorrow morning there will be the usual service 
here. There won't be any service tomorrow afternoon, 
but tomorrow night there's going to be a tremendous 
one. If s going to be for the colored folks. I want 



AM) THUNDERBOLTS. 161 

you all to know that the pews will be for the colored 
people. I don't, want a single white person to sit 
down as long as there is a colored person standing up. 
I pray for a glorious meeting among the colored folks. 
I've preached to ten thousand negroes in some cities, 
and the meetings have aroused great interest. The 
choir will be expected to sing a few hymns, and then 
we will have a few from the colored people themselves 
in the good old style. 

"Sunday afternoon there will be a service for every- 
body, but Sunday night there will be one for men only, 
and I hope it will be the crowning service of the meet- 
ings. Tell the crowd that's been hangin' back to come 
on. Tell em I won't skin 'em.' Lot of these aldermen 
have been hangin' back, 'fraid I'd skin 'em, but I won't 
do it.I ain't out after hides Sunday night; I'm after 
souls. When I'm after hides I can git 'em. 

"I'm not going to announce my text at opening of 
my sermon, brethren, but I am going to give it to you at 
the close. I do not do this to be singular or different 
from other ministers, but because the text is an answer 
to a question I want to put to you. That question is : 
'Why will you continue in sin?' I don't ask why it is 
that your were born a sinner; I don't ask why it is that 
you came to the tabernacle tonight a sinner. I don't 
ask those things, but I ask you why you will leave this 
tabernacle tonight, and still be a sinner. I don't ask 
why does Savannah continue in sin, or why does the 
man in front of you or behind you continue in sin, 
but why do you continue in sin. 



162 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

"No impenitent sinner can claim that he doesn't know 
what sin is. Not one of yon here but has at some time 
criticised some member of the church. Right there you 
have demonstrated to men and to the angels that you 
knew what sin was, and that you were after the other 
fellow because you thought he was guilty. No man, 
woman or child in this audience can say 'I don't know 
what sin is/ so can it be that you continue in sin be- 
cause you do not appreciate the punishment that there 
is in store for it? He is a fool who gets out in the 
road and says there's no hell. I never knew a religious, 
praying man who did not believe there was a hell. A 
preacher once told me that it was all wrong about a 
hell, that science had proven that. He said he had faith 
in science and believed what it taught. I asked him 
how he knew, had science been sending its explorers 
down? He said no, that it hadn't sent them yet, and 
I told him to telegraph me when it did and they got 
back and were ready to report, because I wanted to be 
right on the spot. The children here before me knov* 
more about hell than the smartest scientist that ever 
lived. They know what Revelations say about the 
wicked being turned into hell. 

"Sin will ruin and blast every man who has to do 
with it. That has been the history of the world. 
Look back over the human race and watch the pilgri- 
mage of man from Adam to the present day and see 
the incontestable proofs that the vengeance of G-od 
falls upon those who transgress his laws. Mr. Jones 
then gave a number of instances from the Scripture, to 



AND THUNDEEBOLTS. 163 

show how the wrath of God had descended upon those 
who had sinned against him. 

"The time has come when the preachers of the world 
must stand by the Book of God and preach a heaven 
of eternal joy and bliss, and a hell of eternal punish- 
ment and damnation. Fve never preached a word that 
I haven't meant. You've got little percipatetic dudes 
in pulpits in this city who say there's no eternal punish- 
ment. A preacher who don't preach the gospel is a 
worse power for evil than a saloonkeeper. He is worse 
than an infidel, for an infidel has not the power of the 
preacher to exert over those who are under his influence. 
Some of these little parsons are goin' round here to 
dances and to wine suppers, and they are doing more 
harm than the dirtiest saloonkeeper in the city. Some 
of you sitting away back there on a back seat will say : 
'Brother Jones is hitting my pastor now.' Say, Sis, 
if I am, you'd better pick up your bonnet and get right 
out of that church, or that old rotten thing will fall 
down on you. 

"God give us ministers who will preach the word of 
;God." 'Amen,' said one of the preachers sitting on 
the platform, and there was fervor in the word. 'There 
they are,' said 'Mr. Jones, 'those country preachers and 
niggers are still backing me. I can count on them. 
God be thanked for the backers. And don't you peo- 
ple hear to anything else than the straight gospel. If 
your preacher preaches anything else than the Bible, 
you know you don't really believe in him yourself. 
"You've got no faith in him. 



164 LIGHTNING MASHES 

"Hear me, brother. You say you know what sin 
is and what it'll do for you. Oh, the stolid indifference 
you show in this. Men go their way as careless and 
unconcerned as if they had 1,000,000 years to live, and 
as if there could be no question but that all would be 
well with thero. Some of you come here to this meet- 
ing and feel a conviction that you are a sinner stirring 
within you. Then you go to the saloons and drink 
it away, to the clubs and cuss it away, or to the house 
of sin and sin it away. 

"If you are not indifferent, then you are inconsider- 
ate. You will think of other things. You will think 
of your business, but you will not think of the salva- 
tion of your immortal soul. But you may say 'no' to 
•this. You may tell me that you have thought more 
about religion during the last ten days than you have 
about anything else. 

"I believe Savannah has talked and thought more 
about religion in the last ten days than it had in the 
last ten years before I came. But it was not I who 
caused it. It was the power of God. I have been but 
the instrument in his hands to strike to the hearts of 
the people and make them awake to the evils that are 
in the city. Why has Sam Jones caused all this row? 
It's because it's the devil in this town that's stirred up. 
When the devil gets stirred up the people who are 
backing him are going to shoot back at the power that 
does the stirring. They've got nothing against me 
personally. They ain't mad with me. If they were 
mad with me, they'd have been up to that hotel and 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 165 

licked me three times a day. Everybody's talking about 
religion. They are talking about Sam Jones. Some 
are discussing him and some are leaving off the 'dis.' 
And what are they cussin' me about? Why, somethin' 
i said at Waycross. What you got to do with what I 
said at Waycross, you old blear-eyed idiot, you? What 
you care about Way cross, anyhow? Ain't Waycross able 
to take care of itself? It's got 4,000 people in it, and 
it looks to me like that ought to be a big enough crowd 
to git along without you. But here you come, talkin' 
about gettin' up a special train to go down there and 
help 'em out ; help 'em against a little, sallow, 140 pound 
preacher. You ain't got no sense, you ain't. 

"Down' there at that station house they are still hold- 
ing policemen to give me protection. The chief of 
police says he's running this police force. The chief 
running it ? He's running it like a wheelbarrow runs a 
nigger. You've seen a wheelbarrow doin' that, haven't 
you? 

"Yes, sir, he keeps those policemen penned up there 
until after 10 o'clock, until somebody telephones and 
says, ''Sam's done.' Then he turns 'em loose ; says 'Sam's 
done, boys, you kin go now.' Let 'em adjourn right 
now, if they think they are stayin' down there for my 
protection. I don't need protection, and I don't want 
protection. I have told 'em time and again I don't 
want it. Let him turn the policemen loose, and if any 
hoodlums come around here raising any disturbance 
we'll make 'em meat for the buzzards. Hear me. Who's 
running this police force? Certainly the chief ain't; 



166 LIGHTNING ELAISHES 

even Bascom don't believe he is. Why I haven't seen 
your chief of police ridm' up Bull Street since I cut 
off a joint of his tail. No, sir; he keeps off on the side 
streets now. 

"They've got to turn those men loose. They can't 
keep them up in that station for my protection. If 
they don't turn them loose, there'll be more trouble 
than there is with a box of monkeys at feed time. Talk 
about protection. Why, I have never preached in a 
city where there has been better order than in Savannah. 
Ain't but one felt like he oughter git up and have 
his say, and he was a lame fellow from Thunderbolt. 

"If they don't turn those men loose we'll fix it so 
that not a single man who has anything to do with 
keeping 'em there will hold office again. Sam Jones 
will come down and open up a tent about the time of 
the next election. He won't do it in the Park Exten- 
sion, I guess, because the crowd that's in will be able 
to keep me out of that,, but we'll turn our guns loose 
from a tent that'll hold 12,000, and there'll be enough 
dead dogs around after the election to keep the scaven- 
ger wagons busy. It's a lie if you say you pen 'em up 
to keep 'em to protect Sam Jones; it's a lie; it's a lie; 
it's a lie. I don't want any protection. You git little 
Billy's wagon and haul that board of aldermen up here 
and we'll launder 'em. 

"Do you continue in sin because you are reckless of 
consequences? Oh, the recklessness of men. I have 
watched it until my very blood runs cold. They are 
sinning in open defiance and committing every crime 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 167 

right in this town, with the eye of God upon them. 
A man who rushes up against God unprepared is a 
fool. I knew a drunken man once who decided that he 
would go out and throw the fast express off the track. 
He was crushed to powder beneath the wheels of the 
engine, but that man was a philosopher beside the one 
who rushes unprepared into the presence of God. 

"But you say that you are not reckless; that you 
have the fear of God upon you; that you are afraid 
of the coffin and of the winding sheet. Then you are 
apathetic, sleeping upon the very brink of eternity. 
A man may go to sleep to open his eyes in hell and 
remain there forever. 

"Is it because a conquered peace has got possession 
of your soul? God pity that man who has fought his 
last battle with God. God save the man who may be the 
first to die in this audience. God save the soul here 
that is nearest to hell/' The preacher then announced 
his text : Ecclesiastes, 8 :11 : fC Because sentence against 
an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the 
heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do 
evil/' 



168 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

PAUL'S EPISTLES TO SAMUEL. 

ORDINAKILY SURNAMED SAM JONES. 

Beloved Samuel: You, who are descended from the 
prophet, who was the son of Elcana and his unfruitful 
wife, Anna or Hannah, my trust in you has neither 
ceased nor diminished since I first rescued you from 
the demon of intemperance, whilst you were sojourn- 
ing at the classic city of Cartersville, with people of 
vile and unholy instincts, addicted to all kinds of pro- 
fanity and blasphemy, like Hymeneus and Alexander 
the coppersmith, notwithstanding you were under the 
fervent ministration or a reverend and pious grand- 
father. 

It seemed to me that Satan had enmeshed you in a 
diabolical net of exceeding great strength, and that to 
get out of the entanglement could only be accomplished 
by a sincere repentance and dependence on the Lord 
on your part; my ardent prayers to the Most High 
for your release, and the efforts O'f your affectionate 
and devoted wife, who had been driven to despair 
through your drunken habits, coarse brutality and the 
low down association. 

To that repentance, my prayer, and your wife's de- 
voted efforts to reclaim you, you were snatched from 
the wiles of the devil, from the unholy alliance you had 
formed with unbelievers and became a new man, a 
follower of the Lord, a deserter from the ranks of 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 169 

crime and villainy, and thus secured your eternal sal- 
vation, if your repentance and fervent promises were 
scrupulously and religiously carried out. 

You were certainly, my dear ^Samuel, to speak in 
a worldly, carnal and vulgar manner, a hard case — 
an extremely hard case, the boys used to shout after 
you, "There goes drunken Sam'* — now, all things are 
changed, repentant and erring sinner thou hast been 
received into my ministry and accepted as a trust- 
worthy disciple of the Lord. 

Your conversion has had a salutary effect upon the 
community at large, more particularly about the en- 
virons of Cartersville, as many backsliders have been 
gathered into the fold. 

Heaven must have rejoiced at the reclamation of 
such a vile and corrupted sinner, seeing how bene- 
ficial it has proved to the souls of your neighbor. 

Had it so happened that the Lord had touched the 
heart and drawn into his embrace that notorious ban lit 
known as Jesse James, it could not have occasioned 
more astonishment or led to greater religious results. 
Now, as one of my brethren, you have displayed 
great zeal and unwearied assiduity in the teaching of 
the gospel. You have shown a knowledge equal to 
that of Timothy; a fortitude as great as Peter; a love 
of labor like that of Titus, Onesimus and Timotheu*, 
and now out of much affliction and anguish of heart 
I write unto you with many tears, not that you should 
be grieved, but that you might know the love which 
I have still so abundantly in you. 



170 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

The rumors and reports, oral and otherwise, I have 
heard about you are so disquieting that I can not re- 
frain placing before you the true teachings of the gos- 
pel, and endeavor to wean you from those disgusting 
episodes in your discourses, of such a carnal and flag- 
rant nature, that they must cease, for while they may 
give you many hearers and much notoriety, can not 
advance the true doctrine which is made up of peace, 
charity and good will towards all men. You wili re- 
member that I had once before written to our brother 
Timothy, recalling him to a sense of that duty which he 
owed to the church recommending him to attend tolcfy 
to teaching the doctrine of Christ and not meddling 
with worldly matters to create dissensions. 

You will therefore listen to my exhortations with 
due humility and respect. 

Broad and unsavory personal allusions should always 
be avoided, for the Scripture saith: "Whosoever be- 
lieveth in the Lord shall not be confounded, for there 
is no distinction of the Jew and the 'Greek, for the 
same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon him. 

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 
shall be saved. 

Every one has his proper gift from God, one after 
this manner, another after that. 

To one is given wisdom, and to another the word of 
knowledge. 

Knowledge punVfch up but charity edifieth. 

If I speak with the tongues of men and angfcls and 
have not charity I am becoming as sounding brass or 



AM) THUM>ER!BOLTS. 171 

a tinkling cymbal. Better to speak five words with 
understanding that I may instruct others, than ten 
thousand words without judgment. 

'Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth, but 
that which is good to the edification of faith that it 
may administer grace to thy hearers. 

Shun profane and vain babbling, for they grow 
much towards ungodliness. Such speech spreadeth like 
a canker, of whom are Hymeneus and Philetus. 

Indulge not in obscenity or foolish talking, nor scur- 
rility, which is to no purpose, but rather to giving 
thanks to the Almighty. 

'Be not wise in your own conceits, whatever glory 
or applause such works might procure from men; they 
would be of no value, in the sight of God. 

If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace 
with all men, giving no offense that the ministry may 
not be blamed. 

To preach the gospel, not to glory in your own 
achievements, for if any man thinks himself to be 
something wherein he is nothing he deceiveth himself. 

Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, 
reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine; 
show thyself an example of good work in integrity and 
gravity. To live i9 Christ, and to die is gain. 

Let your exhortations be worthy of the gospel of 
Christ: whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
-are modest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
things are holy, whatsoever things are amiable, what- 
soever things are of good repute, if there be any virtue, 



172 LIGiHTMNiG FLASHES 

if there be any praise of discipline, think on these 
things which yon have seen and heard from me — these 
do — and the God of peace will be with you. 

Let your speech be always in grace, seasoned with 
salt that you may know how you ought to answer every 
man — give not heed to fables and endless genealogies 
which furnish questions rather than the edification of 
God which is in faith. 

Even so, the tongue is indeed a little member and 
boasteth great things, behold how small a fire kindleth 
a great wood; and the tongue is a fire, a world of 
iniquity. The tongue no man can tame, a restless evil 
— full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the 
father; and by it we curse men who made after the 
likeness of God — out of the same mouth proeeedeth 
blessing and cursing. These things ought not to be. 

The servant of the Lord must not wrangle, but be 
gentle towards all men; fit to teach, patient with 
modesty, admonishing those who resist the truth, if at 
any time God give them repentance to know the truth. 
Shun vulgar and profane allusions for they grow much 
towards impiety; abandon strife of words from which 
arise envies, contentions, blasphemies and suspicions — 
from which things, some going astray, are turned aside 
in vain talk. Now the end of the commandment is 
charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and an 
unfeigned faith. 

All things are clean to the clean, but to the defiled 
and the unbeliever nothing is clean, but both their 
mind and conscience are defiled. 



AND THUNDERBOLT'S. 173 

If any man ministers, let it be as the power which. 
God administered, that in all things God may be honor- 
ed and his church respected, by dignified gestures by 
the utterance only of pure and holy words that offend 
no one, create neither levity nor laughter in a house 
sacred to God. 

Now, my beloved Samuel, by your repentance and 
unstinted work you are held blameless before God. 

(Continue to walk with Christ in the faith grounded, 
settled and immovable from the hope of the gospel 
which you have heard, which is preached in all the 
creation that is under heaven, and you, who were dead 
in your sins He hath quickened together with Him, 
forgiving you all offenses. I trust you will therefore 
forego the use of vain and 'foolish language in your 
preaching and return to the only true and holy me- 
thods of pressing conviction upon your hearers through 
the love of God and peace and good will to all men, 
so that your enemies may not repeat the saying of 
.Festus "much learing doth make thee mad" — rather 
say with me "I have fought the good fight, I have 
finished my course, I have kept the faith." Salute 
Brother Stuart, who has aided you much in the Areo- 
pagus. Salute Brother Anthony, who hath clung to 
you like a brother. Salute Brothers Nisbet and Jor- 
dan, and the Milesian McCorkel, your helpers, who 
labor in the Lord. Salute the churches which are in 
their hands that they may become more profitable than 
hitherto. Grace be with you — amen ! Paul — commonly 
called PAUL PBY. 



174 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



NOT A WORSHIP DISTURBER. 

A NEGRO BOY. 

The fact that a negro urchin carried an advertising 
transparency around the Jones Tabernacle in the parade 
ground did not constitute the disturbance of public 
worship. Recorder Myrick ruled in Police Court yes- 
terday morning. The hearing of the case was an in- 
teresting one. 

The sign "Get New Soles at " and "Home- 
made shoes at — ■ " was in the courtroom and Ben- 
jamin Jenkins, the youthful prisoner, admitted that 
he had been guilty of the oifense of walking around 
the tabernacle with the transparency on his shoulder. 
Three lighted candles on the inside made the words 
appear clear and bright and the boy was promptly 
placed under arrest by officer Jernigan. 

Patrolman Bostick has also been doing duty at trip 
tabernacle and both officers appeared against the di- 
minutive negro. Officer Jernigan announced that he 
had sent instructions to headquarters to place the man 
whose business was being advertised on the docket. For 
some inexplicable reason this was not done. 

This statement from the patrolman brought iSupt. 
Reilly to his feet. Up to that point he had been anxi- 
ously waiting to see what was going to happen. The 
superintendent stated that he had countermanded the 
order sent in by the patrolman. He did not wish to 



AND THUNDEEBOLTS. 175 

have business men placed on the docket and taken into 
court unless there was some real cause for it. The 
superintendent said that he wanted to find out what 
was going to be done by the court with Jenkins before 
taking any further steps. 

Eecorder Myriok told the boy that he could go in the 
parade ground with his transparency, but not to get 
mixed up in the crowd at the tabernacle. The case of 
disturbing public worship was dismissed, and with his 
banner over his shoulder Jenkins left the court room 
and began his parade through the streets. 

The patrolmen who appeared against the boy and 
who have been on dutv at the tabernacle were not at 

J 

all pleased at the decision of Judge Myrick. They de- 
sired the conviction of the negro, and offered to have 
the ministers come forward and prosecute. The Ee- 
corder could not see it this way, and his decision stood. 
He did not appear to relish the actions of the officers. 



176 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



SEA OF DARK FACES CONFRONTED REV. SAM 
JONES IN THE PARK TABERNACLE. 

"go, quit your meanness/' was the evangelist's 
message to the colored people of savannah. 

Five thousand negroes thronged and packed the 
tabernacle and crowds of people lined it on its three 
open sides. Evangelists Jones and Stuart both 
spoke. Another jibe at the expense of the police. 
They get nothing but negroes and poor whites. 
Policy playing and gambling generally vigorously 
condemned. 

A great throbbing, pulsating sea of negro faces, 
extending fro-m the rear of the building to the front 
and to both sides, fringed about with the faces of at 
least two or three thousand white people, made up the 
scene which was presented at the Park Tabernacle last 
night. 

It was an occasion that must be memorable to every 
one who witnessed it, such a one as comes rarely in 
any man's lifetime, and that having come and gone, 
leaves an impression that will not fade. 

"You are a religious people," said Rev. George 
Stuart, addressing the negroes, who made up the great- 
er portion of the audience, and in every dusky face, in 
every glistening eye, in every resonant tuneful voice, 
uplifted in some old negro melody of praise or devo- 



AND TBIMDERB0LTS. 177 

iion, was the abounding verification of the truth of 
this statement. Applause, fervent "Aniens," the deep 
hum that everywhere expresses the approval of the 
negro multitude and its sanction of what appeals to 
it as the truth — these frequently interrupted the 
speakers. There must have been 5,000 negroes in the 
tabernacle. On the platform were both evangelists, the 
white ministers who have been their co-laborers in the 
evangelistic work they have been conducting in Sa- 
vannah, and a dozen or more colored preachers. These 
in addition to the regular white choir, the members 
of which filled their accustomed places. 

The services opened with some hymns by the choir 
and then the negro congregation took up and sang their 
songs of praise. They were not new-fangled hymns 
that came from the throats of these people, but the 
good, old-fashioned, camp-meeting songs, that an older 
generation grew to know and love. The volume of 
music swept up an through the air and rolled away, 
with a sweetness, a sympathy, a depth of conviction 
and religious enthusiasm that only a negro congrega- 
tion, singing such old-fashioned gospel melodies, could 
have produced or evinced. They sang, "That Good 
Old-time Religion," "When the Roll is Called I'll be 
There," and a number of responsive hymns, in which 
one led and the congregation, with swelling fervor, 
carried the refrain. 

Mr. Jones read a telegram from a woman, a mother, 
living in Temple, Tex., which asked the prayers of 
himself and the congregation for her son, who, the 



178 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

message stated, was in the tabernacle. The man to 
whom this message refers, said Mr. Jones, "was glori- 
ously and happily converted three nights ago." 

Mr. Jones then announced that, in addition to the 
sermon he would himself deliver, Mr. Stuart would 
preach to the colored people. "If you will give him 
your attention," said the evangelist, "You will hear 
things that will be good for you and a better sermon 
than I can preach." 

Mr. 8tuart preached a strong sermon. With closest 
interest and attention the congregation followed him 
through his sermon, which was made up of good advice 
and good sense. This was followed by some singing 
and then Mr. Jones addressed the great audience. 

His text was the entire fifteenth Psalm, beginning: 
"Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? who shall 
dwell in thy holy hill?" These questions from the 
first verse of the Psalm, and the remaining four are 
made up of the answers to these questions. "A fair 
reading of the opening verse of the text," said Mr. 
Jones, "would be, 'Lord, who is fit to be in thy church, 
and who will ultimately get to heaven.' 

"'Who is fit to be in the church? You know when 
you say a man or a woman isn't fit to be in the church 
you mark that man or that woman as a pretty mean 
sort of character. She may be a pretty good dancer, 
or a fairly good liar, but she's not fit to be in the 
church; he may be a fair sort of drunkard and an ex- 
pert thief, but he won't suit for the church. Who is 
the man who is fit to be in the church? You or I 



AND THUM>EBB()LTS. 179 

may have our opinions on the subject, and these opin- 
ions may be right or wrong. But God, though all men 
may be liars, speaks always and nothing but the truth. 
When the carpenter wanted to raise that pillar and 
see that it was upright, he used his spirit level to as- 
sure himself it was so; when the mason built yonder 
pile of brick, he employed a line and plummet to assure 
himself that his proportions were true. My friends, 
when you want to see if your life is such that you are 
fit for the church, apply to it this blessed spirit level 
of the Bible and measure it by the line and plummet 
of God's word. 

**And first of all the Book says the man who is fit 
to enter the church is f He that walketh uprightly/ 
God give us such a man ! One who does something for 
himself and something for his church, but not one who 
spends ten dollars on whiskey and tobacco for every 
ten cents he spends for church work. When a man 
walketh uprightly he can listen to the truth and have it 
do him good, but when his life and his heart are im- 
pure, he gets up out of his seat and walks away, curs- 
ing the man who has tried to do him good. It's true, 
it's not only true of coloTed folks, hut its true of white 
folks, I've run some of 'em off already." 

Mr. Jones discussed briefly other sections of the text, 
applying further the standard of fitness. "He that 
worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his 
heart." 

" f He backbiteth not with his tongue.' That's it. 
You know what the word backbite means. It means 



180 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

to come up behind a man and get him when he's not 
looking. I want to say to you that you colored people 
have done yourselves more injury with your own ton- 
gues, than all the white people in the country, in every 
way they have employed. 

"I was born, bred and buttered among you colored 
people, and I know you. I know your instincts and 
your outstincts, and what I tell you is so. Keeping 
to the .subject of the injury that was done the colored 
people by their own reckless use of their tongues, Mr. 
Jones inveighed against the practice. He told the 
colored people they injured their neighbors, and their 
race, and their individual selves by bearing tales of 
each other to white people, destroying in this way one 
man's chance of a livelihood, and another's reputa- 
tion. They lessened their preachers' usefulness and 
destroyed the preachers' influence with their families 
by criticising them bitterly. 

" In whose eyes a vile person is condemned.' A man 
is known by the company he keeps and not the angels 
in heaven could keep such company as do some of you 
out there and not be defiled. You are running around 
in saloons and you are entering and spending your 
money in every low gambling den that lies between 
your house and the place where you work. You are 
throwing away your money and blasting your lives by 
playing policy. 

"Policy! You're not only a rascal, but you are a 
blank fool when you buy those tickets. How long 
are you going to let these dirty rascals rob you, you 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 181 

black devil, you. And some of you women are doing 
the same thing, spending the money that you make 
with your back bent over the washtub for six days in 
the week. You let 'em rob you from Christmas to 
Christmas. How long are going to let these low down 
scoundrels keep it up. 

"Policy! your grand jury has denounced it as the 
most complete system of robbery that ever cursed and 
disgraced this community. The police of this town 
never heard it was going on and they can't stop it; 
they can't stop anything and they can't catch any one 
for doing anything unless it's a poor white man, with- 
out money or friends, or some poor negro. 

"And you keep on playing policy and shooting craps. 
You bend over the ground and call out (imitating), 
'Come seven, come eleven; I want to get the ole lady a 
new dress.' You'd better change it to ^Come seven, 
come eleven ; here comes a policeman and off I go to the 
chaingang.' 

"You know they'll get you. I wouldn't reflect on 
the police force of this town, and I say that you and 
the poor white men are about all they've got orders 
to arrest for gambling. Of course, they can't do any- 
thing without orders. Poor fool! Poor fool! When 
you get your money, buy something with it that will 
help your wife and family; go home and give it to 
them; try and lead a decent life and be a decent man. 

"Let me show you a picture. One of you men comes 
up from his home in the morning and stops in a 
saloon to get a drink. He tells the barkeeper he'll pay 



182 LIGHTNING ITLAISiHES 

him "Saturday night. He comes back -again in the even- 
ing and gets another drink, and every morning and 
every evening he repeats the performance. That week 
it rains two days and he only has $2.80 as the result 
of his labor. 

"Saturday night he tries to get past the saloon with- 
out the proprietor seeing him, but he is seen and the 
barkeeper yells, 'Hi, Tom, come over here a minute.' 
'Yes, sir,' he calls back, f Ise jest comin' — the black 
rascal, when he's just going in the other direction." 

'Mr. Jones continued the picture. The negro finds 
he owes the barkeeper $1.80, and that it has eaten up 
Hie greater part of his week's wages. He takes one 
drink to warm him up and another to keep that com- 
pany, and winds up by spending the small remaining 
balance. Then he goes home. He tells his wife he 
couldn't find his employer that day and hasn't collected 
his wages. He has forgotten the meat and flour for 
his table, and the shoes for his child. He swears at 
his wife when she reminds him the preacher is coming 
to dinner the next day and says, of the preacher, "Con- 
found him, I don' wan him erroun here any how." 

The only thing the man has to show for his wages 
is a bottle of whiskey. "If the devil don't get you 
in the end," said Mr. Jones, "it'll be because he don't 
want you. Some of you rascals will be down in the 
saloon tonight, telling the barkeeper what Sam Jones 
said." 

Mr. Jones turned himself loose on the propensity 
of the negro race to imitate the worse traits of the white 



AND THIUNIDBDEHBOLTS. 183 

man and leave his best traits alone. "You don't need 
any dancing, gambling or whiskey drinking. A man 
can't drink whiskey and be a Christian, and don't you 
forget it. You stop it now. If your girl says she's 
going to dance anyhow, take her to a back room and 
pull out the trunk strap and you'll be able to make 
her dance right." 

"You like this sort of preaching ?" There was a loud 
yell of approval and assent. "Well, I don't care whether 
you like it or not. When I go out for hides they come." 

The next segment of his sermon, Mr. Jones address- 
ed to the negro preachers. 'Many a church, he said, 
had been ruined by the ministry of a man not fitted for 
the office he held. He said this, he said, without re- 
flecting or meaning any reflection upon any colored 
preacher in Savannah, but it was a truth they all would 
acknowledge. 

"When you see your preacher gallivanting around 
with the sisters, you go up to him and tell him he'd 
better quit. 'When he goes to church, let him go with 
his own wife, and if, said Mr. Jones, turning to the 
colored ministers, 'You ain't married, you stop preach- 
ing till you get a wife.' 

"A preacher ought to be a clean man from the crown 
of his head to the sole of his foot and if he ain't he'd 
better get out of the ministry. A colored preacher 
who'll drink whiskey ain't fit to hang on the back door 
of hell, and One who'll sell himself and his congrega- 
tion to any crowd of dirty politicians is worse than 
the whiskey-soaked preacher/' 



184 LIOHTNINiG MjAjSHEIS 

The evangelist said that whiskey drinking is at the 
bottom of half the failures among colored people to 
pay their debts. Every dirty, lying nigger in this 
town who don't pay his debts has been drinking whiskey. 
There are places in this town, stores, where you won't 
go, because you know you owe money and have been 
owing it for weeks. And yet you go around and say, 
f A colored man ain't got no chance.' You lying ras 
cal, you. 

"I go more on character than I do on color. It's 
not a question of your hide, but one of character. 
That's what counts." To illustrate and prove this 
assertion, Mr. Jones told several stories of industrious 
colored men in various parts of the State and country, 
who by their own exertions had accumulated a com- 
petency, held their heads erect, walked uprightly and 
commanded, as they received, the respect of their 
white neighbors as well as the people of their own 
race. 

The evangelist turned loose on the frequenters of 
Lincoln Park on Sunday afternoons, who he said went 
out there to clance and drink whiskey. "You are let- 
ting the devil muster you into his chaingang and if 
you keep on the Lincoln Park gang will be turned into 
the chaingang as sure as I stand preaching here." 

'Character is the thing that counts, the speaker re- 
iterated. "We can all live right, if we want to. I al- 
wa} r s feel particularly anxious to save from sin the 
negroes and the poor white folks. They have a pretty 



AND THUNDEEBOI/TS. 185 

hard time of it in this life, arid if they are to have 
hell hereafter it's too bad, it's too bad." 

The sermon concluded, Mr. Jones asked those in the 
congregation who felt they were convicted of their 
sin and who would promise they would forsake their evil 
courses and lead better, cleaner and purer lives, to 
rise. Apparently the whole colored congregation arose 
in answer to this appeal. 

The evangelist then exhibited a bunch of blue rib- 
bons, which he invited the men of the congregation, 
who would promise to drink no more, until the end 
cf their days, to accept and wear. Hundreds of ne- 
gro men pressed to the platform to receive these little 
insignia from the hands of their own preachers. 

"You women," said Mr. Jones, "come up and get one 
of these ribbons for your husbands, and if he won't 
wear it, you tie the old devil up in a sheet and beat 
him half to death." The women came up and got the 
ribbons and bore them away. 

Rev. W. E. Beard, a negro missionary, announced 
at the meeting last night that he had volunteered for 
service in Africa and would soon take passage for that 
jand. Mr. Jones asked the white persons present to 
assist the missionary, and a handsome collection was 
taken up and handed over to him. 



186 LTGiHTNING FLASHES 



AMUSING THINGS OF SAM JONES. 

SALOON MEN LOSE. 

Many amusing things were heard in the crowd of 
white and colored people that surrounded the taber- 
nacle during the Jones colored meeting last night. One 
old negro, slouchy and unkempt with the grime of the 
day's work still upon him, and in him a dram from the 
cup that inebriates, had been unable to get a seat with- 
in the tabernacle, so steadied and supported himself 
against the railing around it, and kept the audience in 
reach of his voice highly amused by his comments on 
the utterances of the evangelist. 

Eev. Mr. Jones had just said that the colored preacher 
that "gallivanted around with the 'sisters^ had better be 
fired," or words to that effect, when the old man 
burst out with "da't my text, too, sure." The last word 
with such emphasis as to leave the impression that he 
knew by personal experience, and felt deeply, the force 
of the speaker's remark. Then looking again toward 
the platform he caught sight of a colored minister smil- 
ing. This seemed to irritate him and he broke out 
with "Huh ! Dere's a nigger on de stand now what ain't 
got no wife and wa't right's he got to laugh." 

To this question he evidently failed to evolve a sat- 
isfactory answer, for he fell to listening again with 
the greatest attention until another sally from the 
preacher seemed to hit home and strike him as a little 



AMD THUNDBEBO'LTS. 187 

too personal even though true, for he pulled himself 
together and shuffled toward the outskirts of the crowd 
muttering with another preparatory grunt, fC Bat man 
say he's done been born and bred wid niggers, and he's 
sure must a bin." 

'Mr. Jones may know it — he may not, but his pres- 
ence in Savannah has had a dampening effect on the 
retail liquor traffic, so the dealers say. Assume that 
there are an average of 8,000 at the tabernacle nightly, 
and grant further that 5,000 of this number would, if 
free these warm evenings, take an average of two glasses 
of beer each. Saloon men say they get eighty glasses 
of beer from each quarter barrel, which is a minimum 
estimate, because of frequent calls for "ponies," and 
also the adoption of such methods in drawing as will 
make the "boobies" come and thereby lessen the ac- 
tual quantity. But granting there are only eighty 
glasses to the quarter, this will make 10,000 uncon- 
sumed by the absence of 5,000 persons. This would 
give 125 quarter 'barrels unconsumed, which at the 
regular price of $2 each, will make the loss by twenty- 
one days' preaching $5,250. Add to this the price of 
mixed concoctions, and a remarkable estimate of the 
cost of Mr. Jones' visit to the saloon men would prob- 
ably he between $5,000 to $7,000. 

Talking on this subject the other day, a brewery 
man incidentally remarked while discussing trade, that 
things were quiet just now in the beer market. 

"Do you attribute this to the presence of Sam 
Jones'?" 



188 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

"I think Jones' work is having much to do with it," 
he replied. 

To some people Mr. Jones' declaration that no gen- 
tleman would enter a saloon was shocking. One man 
took especial exception to this utterance, and said he 
thought it time the evangelist was being called down. 

"So do I," chimed in a listener. "Look at old Mr. 

, and honored citizen, and -Capt. , and Maj. 

; yes, and Col. are there to be no exceptions 

to that sweeping denunciation?" 

"Jim, you call Jones down in a newspaper card," 
proposed the first. 

"No, sir, I can't afford to squeal, you call him 
down" replied the second man. 

After a heated controversy as to the respective "cal- 
ling down" merits of each the disputants decided to 
let the evangelist stay on the perch so far as they 
were concerned. 

In an effort to offset Jones' argument the other 
day "a grumbler" called attention to a report that 
following the evangelist's visit to Waycross one person 
was seen to hie himself out under the suburban pines, 
produce a flask and take a nip. How this could hap- 
pen in a community which had been supposedly edu- 
cated against the use of liquor was something the grumb- 
ler couldn't understand. He maintained that after Mr. 
Jones leaves Savannah a few scattering toddies will 
be taken. "Therefore, since Jones don't stop drinking 
by those who hear and those who don't hear him, he's 
not the man for the place." 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 189 

But, according to what Mr. Jones told a Savannah 
man on an Atlanta sleeper several days ago, he does 
not expect his preaching to accomplish absolute ab- 
stinence among all classes. 

"I fear that Savannah may in some respects be like 
a white pig," jovially remarked the evangelist. "You 
may apply brushes and rub until he is spotless. And 
as .soon as you turn the pig loose he'll head for the 
first mud hole and wallow. Going to be mighty hard 
to keep Savannah from wallowin' after I leave, I'm 
afraid." 



190 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



SAIM JONES IN JAIL. PRISONERS LISTENED 
TO THE ElVlANGiELIST IN THE PRISON 
CORRIDOR. JUDGE WEFT WITH FELONS. 

"manhood" the subject of the evangelist's talk. 

(Murderer, bigamist, robber, forger, vagrant, and 
drunkard alike penitent. (Strong words cause har- 
dened men and women to break down. Negro wo- 
man fainted under the strain while sheriff was with 
her discharge papers. Murderers clung to evange- 
list and were led to their cells weeping bitterly. 
Child burglar gave way for the first time in his 
criminal experience and grasped the minister's 
hand. 

Murderer, forger, bigamist and burglar, petty thief 
and highwayman, drunkard and tramp, men, women 
and children, together with the judge who has sentenced 
many of them or before whom they will appear, broke 
down under the words of Rev. Sam P. Jones in Cha- 
tham county jail yesterday morning and wept. The 
scene was an affecting one and hardened criminals went 
down before the word of the evangelist. 

Women of the street who have reached the depths 
of wantonness shed tears of repentance and the hearts 
of those steeped in debauchery were touched by the 
words of the magnetic power. Men who had faced 
Judge Falligant and received long sentences with stoic 



AM) THUMDEElBOiLTS. 191 

composure; at least one who had heard the death sen- 
tence pronounced, and who now rests within the sha- 
dows of the fatal cell, bowed their heads and with 
tears streaming down their cheeks asked God's mercy 
-for their sins. It was a touching scene. 

As the unfortunates went forward and asked the 
evangelist to pray for them the eyes of Judge Robert 
Falligant of the Superior Court became moist. He 
has performed many hard duties, has sentenced men 
to meet their 'Maker, and has condemned men to lives of 
servitude in accordance with the law. These painful 
duties have caused his tender heart to ache more than 
once, but the words of the minister and the action of 
the prisoners caused him to break down completely. 

Mr. Jones spoke on "Manhood," and it was a char- 
acteristic talk. He had no sympathy to offer those in 
confinement. If they had not been guilty of wrong- 
doing they would not be in prison, he said. It is 
never too late to reform, however, and the evangelist 
endeavored by plain talk to show the unfortunates the 
error of their ways. He wanted them to ask for God's 
mercy and make up their minds to lead a better life 
after their prison life has ended. To those who must 
give their lives, for having taken that which God alone 
can give, he advised repentance. They should prepare 
to meet their Maker. 

AN" INCIDENT. 

Sheriff Horrigan of the City Court went to the jail 
shortly after the service began for the purpose of hav- 
ing a negro woman discharged. She was held on a 



192 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

bail of trover case, and was an attentive member of 
the party of ninety-three prisoners who were taking in 
the words of Mr. Jones. There were other officers 
and officials with the prisoners on the second floor of the 
big building and Sheriff Horrigan decided to wait 
until after the service before presenting the discharge 
for the woman. ;She is Mary Randolph. 

The minister made a deep impression on the woman, 
and although she was not in custody because of any 
criminal charge, she gave way under the strain and 
fainted. Two fellow prisoners prevented her from 
falling to the stone floor, and she was removed to a 
cell on the above floor. Sheriff Horrigan saw the wo- 
man fall and when he learned that it was Randolph 
he presented the paper for her release. When the wo- 
man opened her eyes and was told that she was at 
liberty she fell on her knees and raised her voice to 
praise 'God. The incident caused but a brief interrup- 
tion in the service and but few knew what had hap- 
pened. 

John L. Stothard, a red-haired, freckled-faced boy, 
not yet in his teens, for the first time in his criminal 
experience, wept. The boy is held on a charge of burg- 
larizing a Broughton street saloon and getting intoxi- 
cated on the stolen whiskey. He frankly admits his 
guilt and until yesterday never displayed any desire 
to repent. The boy has been in the hands of the police 
on several occasions, and has never shown any disposi- 
tion to mend his ways. Voluntarily he approached Mr. 
Jones and promised to lead a new life, and his face 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 193 

told plainly that his young, but sinful, heart had been 
really touched. 

Walking on his stumps and with but one hand to hold 
out, John Moody,, the notorious negro bootblack, pro- 
fessed repentance. Liquor is responsible for his pres- 
ence in the jail, and with a look of sincerity he prom- 
ised his God to stop the debauching habit. 

There are several men confined in the jail on charges 
of murder. Two of these, one white and the other 
black, clung to the hand of the evangelist and with 
broken voices, and tear-strained faces pleadingly up- 
turned, begged that they be prayed for. 

E. M. McClelland is the white man. He is charged 
with murder in Coffee County and is held for the au- 
thorities there. He had to be led away and went into 
his cell singing the praises. The prisoner has not yet 
been tried. 

Henry Brooks, the convicted slayer of Patrolman 
Harry B. Fender, was the penitent negro*. He was 
the first prisoner to give way to his feelings, and after 
the benediction had been pronounced he was still sob- 
bing piteously. Towards the close of the service the 
negro became weak and was forced to sit on the floor. 

T. H. Waterman, an elderly white man, attracted 
the attention of Mr. Jones. This prisoner had an- 
nounced his reformation before the visit of the minis- 
ter. Waterman is serving a six months' sentence for 
forgery committed while he was under the influence 
of strong drink. He has already promised the Chris' 



194 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

tian woman who visits the unfortunates that he will 
never drink another drop of liquor. 

Thus it was that one by one the prisoners went 'for- 
ward and gave their hands. Goldie Snow, the drink- 
ing Gypsy fortune teller, men, women and hoys, who 
have been confirmed thieves, all professed to have seen 
their sinful ways, and asked for the pra}^ers of the good. 

The service began with a prayer by Mr. Jones and 
singing. The solo "Mother's Wayward Boy," sung by 
Mr. Tillman, brought the first tears to the eyes of the 
prisoners. The East Indian butler, convicted last week 
of robbing his employer, was visibly affected. His 
thoughts reverted to his childhood days on his native 
heath, and the words of the singer seemingly made a 
deep impression on the mind of the young foreigner. 

"The fact that you are here in this place is convin- 
cing evidence that you're a rascal. If you were not you 
wouldn't be here," said Mr. Jones, in talking to the 
prisoners. "It's as broad a truth that greater rascals 
in Savannah ain't here; they ain't been here, and they 
ain't a coming here. Shrewdness, favoritism, genius and 
good luck is got a heap to do with it. I have preached 
to criminals all over the country, and I ain't a-going 
to tell you nothing but facts. You can't say Sam 
Jones came here to give you sympathy, 'cause I didn't. 
I never saw a man in the penitentiary in my life that 
was guilty. Every one of you fellows is innocent as 
an angel. You never took a drink. You never stole. 
You never murdered. All of you here are innocent, 
and the guilty are all on the outside. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 195 

"You kin play your innocent to the judge and jury, 
but listen; don't you play no innocent around God. He 
knows you, and if you think you can fool him, you 
can't. If you are going to die, don't you play no in- 
nocent, because if you do you'll be in hell in a minute 
after. Tain't where are you, but what are you and why 
are you. I'm in jail as much as any fellow here. It's 
character that counts, though. I kin just walk up to 
that jailer and say lemme out and he'll open wide the 
door for me. You'll go up and say, 'Please, Mr. Jailer, 
let me out/ and he will tell you to get back to your 
cell, you old rascal you. That's character. The fact 
that the jail is holding you is pretty good evidence 
that you are rascals. 

"I've been here in Savannah for two weeks, and I 
ain't in jail yet. There is a whole lot of fellers that 
wants to see me here, and would like to see me here 
powerful bad, but that's like the convention of rats in 
the barn. They met and decided all cats must hare 
bells around them. A committee was appointed, but 
when the first old Tom eat was reached all of that 
committee of rats that was left was a little hair and 
blood. There ain't a committee in town that can lick 
Sam Jones or keep his mouth shut. If they tried it 
they would be worse than that rat committee that went 
up to old Thomas 'Cat. There wouldn't be any blood 
and hair left. 

"You fellows are right where you belong. If you 
ain't got no better sense than to drink liquor you should 
be kept here where you can't get it. You're all sobe»-, 



196 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

ain't you? (One of the negro men stated that he nevei 
drank). That's worse then. Yon sober rascals ain't 
got no excuse at all. I'm a-giving you plain talk like 
I give them sinners down at the tabernacle.' 

"Mr. Jones described a grand, noble royal man made 
after God's own image and said that such a man is 
greater by far than a king. He told several stories 
to show what praying would do for a, sinner who really 
had determined to reform. He spoke of a nobler, high- 
er, better, sweeter and greater life, and compared the 
work of God and the work,of the devil. 

"You say, 'Brother Jones, you don't know what temp- 
tation is.' Who knows any better than me. Ain't I 
been there. It's easy enough to quit. It's staying quit. 
That's the rub. Ain't you quit now 'cause you can't 
git it. You tell me you can't quit, you lying rascal. 
Just quit. That's the way to do it. No, you'll say 
I'll take one more drink and then tell it good-bye. 
You're a fool, you are. There ain't no way to taper 
off. I used to taper off from a drunk, but it was to- 
wards the big end. If I run with the gang you run. 
with I would be here in six weeks. You's been to 
Lincoln Park and then you come here. You go there 
on Sunday and then you go to jail. It's the devil's 
park, the dirty old hog wallow. 

"Here last Sunday morning a man was killed and 
another one was killed again this morning. The devil is 
sure to get you. He don't boss the church. He just 
gits churchmen to do it for him. The vestrymen hand 
around the hat in the morning and hand around beer 



AMD THOTDEBBIOTjT'S. 197 

at the Yacht Club in the afternoon. He works for 
the devil all the week and then goes to church to work 
for God on Sunday morning. Some of you think you 
can't be a man in 'Savannah unless you cuss and drink 
whiskey and play cards. He ain't a man; he's a dog." 
Mr. W. I. O'Brien talked to the prisoners for five 
minutes, during which he gave some good advice. He 
spoke of his own sins and said that he would not care to 
recall them, even to other sinners. With God's help 
he will never again go from the straight path of right- 
eousness. He advised his listeners to make up their 
minds to be better men and women. 



198 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



SAM JONES TO MEN. PREACHED TO 5,000 AND 

MORE AT PARK TABERNACLE. ADVICE 

TO THE MAYOR. 

HE COULD NOT BE SUPPRESSED EOR SPEAKING THE 

TRUTH. 

The evangelist takes another fall out of his crit- 
ics. Said "The dirty gang that rules Savannah 
will have to hit the grit." Boss Tweed's downfall 
used to point this moral and adorn this tale. Says 
he has told the truth and will neither apologize, 
amend or explain. Is irrepressible and absolutely 
un suppressive. 

The thunder and lightning of the heavens, instead 
of the peaceful tolling of the church bells summoned 
the men of Savannah to the Park Tabernacle last night 
to hear Rev. Sam Jones talk to them, and of them. 

In the contrast between the artillery of the skies and 
the sweet notes of the bells was a simile of the difference 
between the address the evangelist delivered and the 
outpourings from the ordinary pulpit. The tabernacle 
was filled and crowded, and many stood at the open 
sides and listened to the preaching, but the threatening 
aspect of the weather, just before the hour for the 
services, had acted as a deterrent and kept many away. 
The audience, nevertheless, must have included 5,000 
people, made up of men from even 7 class and every 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 199 

station and every walk of life in Savannah. The con- 
gregation, so far as the interior of the tabernacle was 
concerned, was all of men. Neither on the platform 
nor among the benches was there a single woman. 

Mr. Jones had a good deal to say of Mayor Myers, 
of the effort made to suppress his meetings on the 
ground that he was guilty of using profane and ob- 
scene language, of "the dirty crowd that runs things 
in Savannah/' of his own position in the matter, and 
of his own intentions. It was a good warm sermon, 
all the way through. 

The services began in characteristic fashion. Eev. 
W. A. Nisbet president of the Ministerial Association, 
first addressed the audience. Mr. Nisbet said that it 
had been expected when Mr. Jones and Mr. Stuart 
first came to Savannah that the meetings would close 
last night, but that the evangelists had been induced 
to continue their stay for at least a few days longer. 

"I want all of you who desire Mr. Jones to stay, 
who feel that good has already been accomplished 
through his ministry in Savannah, and who believe 
that more good will be accomplished by his staying 
with us, just as far into this week as he can, to rise." 
Practically the entire congregation of 5,000 people 
arose to their feet in response to this appeal. 

Mr. Nisbet followed this with an appeal for a liberal 
collection. What he had to say was amplified by Eev. 
Bascom Anthony, who explained again the uses to 
which the collections were applied. They were pri- 
marily applied, he said, to the payment of expenses, the 



200 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

Ministerial Association being at an expense of about 
$100 a day to carry on the meetings. It costs about 
$60 a day for the rental of the tabernacle. A share 
of the collections to go to Mr. Jones and Mr. Stuart, and 
Mr. Anthony announced that to meet all expenses the 
collections "hardly do the job." 

Mr. Jones announced that there would be no morn- 
ing sendee to-day or tomorrow, but that the usual after- 
noon and night services would be held. For later than 
tomorrow night he made no announcement, though the 
Ministerial Association hopes to keep him here a 
longer time. 

"It is the occasion of profound gratification to me," 
he continued, "to see with what unity you have wel- 
comed and asked my co-worker and myself to continue 
our stay in Savannah. To see you rise, with such kind- 
ly good will, at the invitation of Mr. Nisbet, made upon 
me a profound impression. My only mission on earth 
is to do what good I can." 

Thus far calmly and earnestly. Then, with a sar- 
castic smile, the speaker added: "I'm glad that while 
one of your executives is seeking legal advice as to 
whether I can be suppressed or not, you are saying, 
with entire unanimity, f iGo ahead, Sam! Sic 'em, Sic 
'em' " There was a great outburst of applause. "I 
want the universe to understand that I am irrepressible 
and absolutely unsuppre&sible." 

"Why, if the Mayor wanted legal advice on this sub- 
ject, why didn't he come to me ? I'm a lawyer, and I eat 
at the next table to him every time I take a meal. I 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 201 

would have told him that everything I have said bss 
been within the bounds of law, and that I was only 
trimming tails, ears and horns. I would have told him 
that I never step outside the bounds of any law, human 
or divine. I can do all I want to do and say all I 
want to say within the limits of both. 

"I have said nothing but God Almighty's truth. 
Nothing but the truth, and I would walk down to a 
butcher shop in the morning and let myself be ground 
into sausage meat as fine as they make it, before I 
would apologize for, mend or explain a word I have 
said. 

"The truth hurts and that crowd can't do anything 
but wiggle. They can wiggle, though, and that's the 
reason I hold 'em up — just to see 'em wiggle. And 
then they go around here talking about my hurting 
their feelings and my abusing them. Hurting them, 
actually! 'Why it's like the story of the man that 
wanted to put something on the skunk to make him 
stink. Why that animal carries about with him the out- 
stinkenest stink that ever stunk. 

"I have compared some men to some animals, but I 
never think on this account of apologizing to the men. 
If I happen to see the animal about I -tell him, thou&Ti, 
that I only used him to point an argument and that 
I meant no disrespect to him. 

"You needen't say you've got to sit quiet under 
what I say just because I'm a preacher. I'm only a 
preacher when I'm on the platform, anyhow, and when 
I step down I'm just plain Sam Jones. No man shall 



202 LIGHTNING PLASHES 

say I ever hid behind my ministerial robes. I don't 
wear 'em, nohow. I wear just the same sort of coat 
that yon do. I never dressed like a preacher in my 
life and I never talked like one. 

"And I want to say to you that everywhere I go I'm 
just as decent a preacher as the nature of the case will 
permit. If I talked to a congregation of angels, I 
would speak to them without a particle of slang or an 
error of grammar or rhetoric. But I talk to men in 
their own language, without the profanity and the 
vulgarity that they effect. I talk to you in the lan- 
guage of the counting room, the store, and the machine 
shop. Why, you know I do. I want you to understand 
what I say. Just imagine my preaching a decent ser- 
mon to the gang I've got here tonight. 

"But I'm after souls tonight; not hides. It don't 
pay much to skin you rascals anyhow; the hide don't 
pay for the skinning." 

All this was merely preliminary. The sermon 
proper was preached from Philippians, 3 :10 and 11. 
"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrec- 
tion and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made 
conformable unto his death : If by any means I might 
attain to the resurrection of the dead." 

Mr. Jones began with an impassioned eulogy upon 
Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul, who he said was the 
greatest man that ever lived. He combined in him- 
self and in his life and character the three essential 
elements of greatness, a big head and a big brain, a big 
heart and the accomplishment of something in this 
life. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 203 

"The three great questions of the century that are 
being asked hy men on every hand; and in every land, 
are these: 'Who is 'Christ? What is Christ? Where 
is Christ V The honor of Christ and the salvation of 
your soul depend upon how you ask and how you answer 
these questions. 

"Many times the message of (rod has come to the 
world. Man has not been left an orphan by fate, nor 
has his destiny been made dependent upon the whim to 
time and chance. The questions he had announced in 
the beginning were those the world was asking itself 
to-day, and the more science flashed its light over the 
nations, the more culture and education broadened and 
expanded, the more eagerly and anxiously does the 
world look up to the skies and ask these questions 
again." 

He said that it was not so important that a man 
should know the deeds or the words of Christ, as that 
he should come to comprehend his thoughts. Onlv by 
a study, of the thoughts of the Saviour can man come 
to the best and truest and tenderest comprehension of 
his character. Man must be made to think, and he 
must be made to think on a high plane. 

"The greatest preacher of to-day is not the one who 
attracts the largest congregation or induces the great- 
est number of men to forsake evil and love the good. 
The greatest preacher of the time is he who gets men 
to thinking on the highest plane. As a man thinks, 
so he will do, and the thoughts of to-day are the acts 
of tomorrow." 



204 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

From Tolstoi's "Census of Moscow/' Mr. Jones drew 
an illustration of the fact that a man's deeds can not 
be better than his thoughts. The great Russian phil- 
osopher, following the census takers around the streets 
of Moscow, had taken a moral census of the city as 
the work proceeded. He selected some individuals 
whom he attempted to benefit and reform. 

A boy, whom he picked up from the slums, from a 
life of squalor and vice and wretchedness, took to his 
own palace, clothed and fed and started on the way to 
school, disappeared a few days later. Tostoi found 
him in Zoological gardens, arrayed in gaudy calico rags 
and leading an elephant around for a penny a day. 

"He thought that was the best thing on earth and 
as long as he thought so, there wasn't much hope of 
making a decent boy. God Almighty can never do any- 
thing with yon, bud, as long as your thoughts are as 
low as this. 

"Take that man over there. He's a vestryman in 
the Episcopal Church or may be a steward in the Me- 
thodist Church — I don't know which. On Sunday 
mornings he passes the plate in church and on Sunday 
afternoons goes out to the Yacht Club and passes his 
glass for beer. As long as he thinks it's all right to 
do this, as long as he believes he can desecrate the holy 
Sabbath in this way and still be a good man and a good 
Christian, he can't be raised much above the butter 
milk trough, where hogs drink. 

"You think the way to be a gentleman is to come to 
Savannah and join one of these hog-wallows of city 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 205 

clubs. You think it's all right to leave your home, your 
pure, sweet mother and sisters, and sink your manhood 
in licentiousness and debauchery. Why, as long as you 
think it neither Clod, angels nor man can lift you an 
inch. 

"You've got a hard head, too, and when I'm preaching 
to your kind I pound your noggin's. Why, if some 
of you hardheaded rascals would wander around this 
park tomorrow and come across a half dozen billy goats 
and get in a buttin' match with 'em, you'd have those 
goats goin' around to the drug store and buying an- 
tikamia to make their heads stop aching. 

"You colored men over there. You think it's all 
right for you to get drunk six nights in the week, 
just so you go to church and shout on Sunday. I'll 
tell you, your .religion's all heart. You better get 
some head in it or get some religious sense in your 
head. Maybe you haven't got room for it, but if you 
haven't, you'd better dig a hole in your skull and pull 
out some of that nonsense and put in a little sense 
and a little truth. 

"What does Christ say of himself in answer to our 
first question? He says, 'I am the way.' Brethren, 
I want to tell you that Christ is the only way. 

"A railway locomotive on the track is a thing of 
power, beauty and speed. But did you ever see one off 
the track? It's the most helpless thing on earth — it 
looks like a giant lying in the ditch. 

"My friends, you want to get on the track. You 
can't move along in the dirt road of drunkenness, of 



206 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

debauchery, of profanity, of infidelity. You must get 
on the track. I am the way/ says the Lord, and the 
hope of the world is in Him. 

"'What says he to our second question? I am the 
truth, and the truth shall make you free/ Nothing 
can stand against the truth, nothing prevail against 
it, nothing overthrow it. The man who speaks and 
lives the truth is the freesi man on earth. 

"I am as free as the air. When I came to Savannah 
I said I was going to stay as long as I pleased and 
leave when I pleased, and bless your heart, that's just 
what I'm going to do. I'm free. And just as I'm 
free to come when I please, and stay as long as 1 
please, and go when I please, I'm free to say what I 
please. I tell the truth. I couldn't tell a lie without 
being silenced and driven out of Savannah. You little 
fellows can lie and nobody objects, but I can't. 

"Nobody has said I've lied. I've talked a little about 
some of this precious gang in Savannah; now you 
notice their interviews in the papers. They object to 
what I say, but none of them say it's not so. 

"They get mad a little and hop about because I hap- 
pened to say that no gentleman would go in a barroom. 
AVhy I had a fellow jump up and holler, because I 
made that statement in one of my sermons, and ask m* 
what I meant, and I told him I meant just what I said 
and that I'd prove it. I'd prove it by him. I asked 
him. if a lady would go in a barroom and he said, no. 
And then I asked him if a gentleman could go where a 
lady couldn't and he hit the bench like a whipped dog. 

"Oh, I grant you that the Savannah gentleman, so- 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 207 

called, can go in barrooms, but I'm talking about sho- 
nuff gentlemen/' There was a great shout of applause 
at this sally and as it subsided Mr. Jones queried 1 : "I 
wonder if that lame duck from Thunderbolt is here 
tonight?" 

"The other day your grand jury took a shot at a 
city official, and he turned around and said the fore- 
man of the grand jury was another. It seems the best 
thing a Savannah officeholder can do when he's at- 
tacked — to turn and say the man who criticised him 
has done the same thing. But they don't call me an- 
other. Things are going wrong in this town and the 
people who are running 'em know it and you know 
I'm shooting in the hole that they are in. They're 
coming out, too. 

"The truth will make you free. When you are wrap- 
ped in the miantle of truth there is no lion that can 
destroy you, no fire that can consume you, no moun- 
tain so high or pit so deep that it can impede your 
onward course. 

"Take this dirty gang that's running Savannah. 
They talk about suppressing me, but, Lord bless youl 
soul, I'll be eating strawberry shortcake and pie when 
they are eating sawdust. They are going to hit the 
grit. They are bound to do it. Look at Boss Tweed — 
he was a bigger man than any of that gang and he's 
hit the grit. Not only was he sent to jail and from 
jail to the penitentiary, but he's burning in hell to- 
night." 

Mr. Jones had high praise for Rev. Bascom Anthony, 
Rev. W. A. Nisbet, and others of the Savannah minis- 



208 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



ters. "You think I'm trying to poke fun at Bascom 
and guy him when I talk to him on this platform. I'm 
not. I tell you, brethren, and I mean what I say, that 
pale-faced cracker from Georgia is the gamest preacher 
that ever walked the streets of iSavannah. You people 
know he's true grit and stands up for the rights." 

The remainder of the sermon was in answer to the 
third question: "What is Christ?" The answer was, 
"I am the resurrection and the life." This portion 
of the discourse abounded in stirring and sweeping 
nights of description. It told of the soul's craving for 
immortality, and expressed the speaker's conviction that 
in this craving was an argument, adequate and con- 
vincing, for the immortality of the soul. 

It dealt with the resurrection of the body, and there 
were other allusions to mother and father and friends 
to illustrate the comfort and the peace that flow from 
a firm conviction in the truth of this doctrine. 

A moving description of a race between two railway 
trains was taken as the basis of an impassioned descrip- 
tion of the race between the several sects and creeds 
of Christianity to save the souls of men. 

'The sermon had an effect almost unprecedented in 
kind and quite unprecedented in degree since Mr. 
Jones has been conducting these services in Savannah. 
Hundreds of men came to the platform to grasp his 
hand and promise to lead better and cleaner and purer 
lives ; some of them leaned their heads against the plat- 
form and wept bitter tears of repentance. They went 
away, however, with a smile and hope and triumph 
upon their lips. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 209 



WON 1,000 '-CONVERTS. THAT IS THE ESTI- 
MATE BY REV. SAM JONES. 

TALK WITH THE EVANGELIST. HE DISCOURSES ON SAVAN- 
NAH. OFFICIALS AND REMEDIES. 

All tests that could be supplied show that meet- 
ings in Savannah have been successful. 5,000 peo- 
ple, Mr. Jones says, have shaken his hand at the 
meetings. Savannah loses when compared fur 
moral cleanliness with Atlanta. Is ready to return 
for a campaign. Mayor's answer to the grand jury 
like calling a man another. 

Rev. Sam Jones talked interestingly to the Morn- 
ing News of Savannah, the success of his meetings 
here, abuses that exist in the administration of the af- 
fairs of the body politic, of one or two of the officials, 
and of the financial side of his engagement to preach 
to the people of (Savannah. As to the success of the 
meetings and whether he thought the results have been 
of a nature to repay him and Mr. Stuart for their la- 
bors, Mr. Jones said: 

"There are three tests of success of such meetings. 
One is the awakening of the churches, another is the 
arousing of the public conscience, and the third is the 
number of souls saved and the people who are con- 
verted. The meetings, with all three tests applied, have 



210 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

shown success. The influence of the meetings has 
grown and broadened, and people who first hardened 
their neck, have come to the services and profited. 
The 'Scribes and the Pharisees have been touched, and 
£0 have those of the Sanhedrin who have occupied the 
highest places in the churches. Men in the Cotton 
Exchange have been impressed, and there was where 
the greatest opposition to the services was manifested. 

"One example of the good that has been accomplished 
by the services was shown last night, when there was 
less beer and whiskey sold in Savannah than there had 
been on any Saturday night in twenty years. When 
such concrete instances are offered, there can be no 
doubt of the good that is resulting. 

"0(f course, it can not be told with certainty, but 
I estimate that there have been 1,000 converts to Chris- 
tianity made through the agency of the meetings, while 
some 5,000 have come forward to the platform, in the 
tabernacle, to shake my hand. Not only people of 
Savannah, but drummers stopping over in the city have 
been saved. 

"Savannah has been one of the most corrupt places 
in the country. Its record of saloons and crimes and 
wickedness has placed it in the same class with New 
Orleans and San Francisco. When a man trots out 
Savannah as an example of a law-abiding city he had 
better get on a train and travel. 

"I would as soon expect to find a pineapple growing 
in Alaska as to find a gambling hell in Atlanta that, 
to the knowledge of the authorities, like these in Sa- 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 211 

vannah, was running for the rain of all who frequented 
it. This game of policy would no more be tolerated 
there than would a case of smallpox parading the streets. 
A certain official of Savannah would no more do his bus- 
iness in Atlanta, with Judge Candler on the bench, than 
a chaingang nigger could preside as toastmaeter at a 
swell club dinner in Savannah. Atlanta has had the 
best judges in the country and all this suppression of 
gambling is in the hands of the judges of the Superior 
Court. Whenever a circuit court is converted into 
a cowpen and the solicitor general becomes the dairy- 
man, the whole thing becomes a farce. Candler don't 
let them milk the cattle. His is not a dairy; it's a 
butcher pen. He puts dressed beef on the market. 

"There was a great preacher spoiled and no greater 
lawyer made when Judge Falligant, in his younger 
days, turned away from the pulpit, for which he was 
trained, to the bar. His motherly heart would have 
been a mighty force for a preacher, but it is too tender 
and sympathetic for a judge. If a certain Savannah 
official would turn his dairy into a butcher pen, he, of 
course, would get less cream, but the public would get 
more beef." 

It has been common talk among some that Mr. Jones 
would not make good his threat to return to Savannah 
and take a hand in the next municipal campaign. (When 
asked about this he said: "I would not be here in the 
interest of politics, but my stand would be for the puri- 
fication of the body politic, by the election of clean, 
unpurchasable officials. I should take my text from the 



212 LIGHTNING- FLASHES 

Bible, and it would be: 'When the wicked rule, the 
people mourn/ The man who has a hearing and who 
has something to say is the most potent factor you 
can employ. It's better than money, because the right 
message turned loose in the conscience of men will put 
them where you can't bite them. If you would put 
h eart and hope into the good people, they would win 
the fight." 

Mr. Jones was asked about the financial side of his 
preaching in Savannah. He said that he had not seen 
one nickel of the money that had been collected at the 
meetings. There has been absolutely no understand- 
ing, he said, as to what he and Mr. Stuart should re- 
ceive for their services. "If there were anything of 
any interest in this matter of money we get," said 
Mr. Jones, "you may rest assured that I would tell it. 
I never keep back anything. No, not one nickel have I 
seen. I said the very first day that I addressed an au- 
dience in Savannah that I was here to give them gos- 
pel and straight preaching and that, if they wanted 
it that way, they could have it without it costing them 
one cent. Whether they pay us or whether they don't 
pay us, it's all the same. The preachers are looking 
out for the money that is taken in. Neither myself nor 
Mr. 'Stuart has had a thing to do with it. I have had 
nothing to say to any of them about money." 

There has been considerable speculation as to the 
amounts that are taken in at the services when the 
ushers pass among the congregation with their baskets. 
Many have contended that the collections would not 



AND THOTDEBBOLTS. 213 

fall short of an average of $200 a day. With deduction 
made for the very slight daily expenses of the conduct 
of the tabernacle, there would be a very neat sum 
for each of the evangelists if such were the case. Mr. 
Jones having said that he knew nothing about it, the 
representative of the Morning News asked Eev. W. A. 
Nisbet, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church and 
president of the Ministerial Association. 

"I don't not know just how much has been taken in 
daily by the ushers," said Mr. Nisbet, ''but the aver- 
age would certainly not be as much as $100. Indeed 
1 do not think it would be more than $50. The amount 
for any day has seldom run beyond $50. The expenses 
of the tabernacle would probably be $3 or $4 a day. 
After the deduction of the expenses, the balance will 
be turned over to Mr. Jones and Mr. Stuart when 
the time for their departure arrives." 



214 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



SAM JONES' APOLOGY. WILL DO THE RIGHT 

THING IF OFFIOALS W'ILL REFORM. 

MUST ENFORCE THE LAWS. 

TACKLED WICKEDNESS IN PRIVATE LIFE, SOCIETY AND 

POLITICS. 

'County and city officials his victims. Ex- 
pressed hie opinion of high "sassiety," dancing and 
card playing. Receipts of saloons compared with 
cost of churches, schools, hospitals and charities. 
Gambling and corruption of the ballot must be 
stopped. 

To an audience quite as large as any that has greet- 
ed him since he has been in Savannah, Rev. Sam Jones 
preached one of his most characteristic sermons last 
night — characteristic in diction, thought, the subjects 
discussed, plain speaking, bitter invective and cutting 
sarcasm; but, withal a sermon filled with good advice, 
and if sharp, necessarily so from the very nature of 
the things discussed — a heroic remedy for evils that 
needed such a measure. 

The evangelist prefaced his sermon by announcing 
that Rev. G. R. Stuart had left the city, being called 
home by an affliction in his family. We part with 
him with sadness and regret," he said, "But will all 
continue to do business at the old stand." He then 
announced that a meeting would be held this afternoon, 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 215 

beginning at 4 o'clock, he said. "I'm going to start 
preaching at 4 :30, and I'll be through at 5 :15 whether 
you are here or not. And there will be preaching at 
night. This announcement will be sufficient for the 
present, because I don't know just how many more 
services there will be. We're going to have a regular 
old-fashioned protracted meeting, and will continue to 
protract it until we are compelled to draw the line. 
When that will be I'll announce later on." 

"I want to say to you people of Savannah," the evan- 
gelist went on, "that you have grown on me and I 
like you; there are some of you don't like me, of 
course, and I don't blame you, I don't. But I want 
to say right here that if any official of this town will 
meet me face to face and say, 'Sam Jones, I've waked 
up, and so help me God I will enforce the laws com- 
mitted to my care and I will do right in future,' we'll 
get thick, and if I've called him an animal I'll say 
he ain't that animal. 

"Listen to me! whatever I've said here has been my 
honest convictions and I'll stand by 'em. And hear 
me again — I want all to do well who will, but the gang 
that won't do right I want to bankrupt so they can't 
do business in this town, and I'll do it with the same 
spirit that moves me when I kneel down to pray for 
a man. 

"Ain't it right," he demanded, turning to the preach, 
ers on the platform. "Yes," came the answer, and 
then, turning to the audience, Mr. Jones remarked 
humorously, "And even Bascom assented to it." 



216 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

"Now, if you'll give me your prayers — you didri i 
pray enough last night nor the night before — wel! 
get on. And let's pray God that the shot that will fly 
thick and fast tonight, will hit those that ought to be 
hit." 

The evangelist then announced as his text Gal. 7:8, 
beginning, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for 
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 

"There are three absolute impossibilities in this life," 
Mr. Jones said. "There may be a thousand others, too, 
but there are at least three that we know about. One 
is for a man continuously and successfully to practice 
fraud on himself. We ought to be so glad that God 
will not let us lie down and sleep ourselves to hell. In 
the life of every man God at some time breaks the si- 
lence of eternity and talks to that man. Man may 
listen if he please to the opinions of his friends, or 
the fawning of his flatterers, but to every man there 
comes a time when he's got to listen to God. 

"The second impossibility is that of practicing fraud 
against your neighbor without being found out. If 
you are good your neighbors know it; if you are bad 
they know it. If I wanted to find out about a fellow, 
I'd go to his next-door neighbor. Some of you fellows 
out there, he said, pointing out into the sea of faces, 
and chuckling, if you knew some of the things that 
have been told Sam Jones 'bout you, you'd pick up 
yourselves and leave. 

"Have you noticed how quiet the aldermen have been ? 
Why, the other day, I'm told, a fellow went up to 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 217 

an alderman and said, c How de do, alderman/ when 
he was broken off with, 'Sir, I'm not an alderman ; the;*e 
is not an alderman in town.' 

"Have you noticed little Billie hasn't opened his 
month. Only one fellow has opened his mouth, and he 
grins better than he talks. 

"Listen to me: The searchlight of truth is turned 
on each one of you; you are fooling nobody." Then 
turning to the ministers, he continued, "And every- 
body knows about the preachers, too; every fellow 
knows what preachers have got sand in their gizzard, 
and every fellow knows the preacher that hasn't got 
sand, and they know how to estimate him. And you 
deacons, stewards and church officials 1 — you needn't 
think it isn't known if you don't live right; you prac- 
tice fraud on no one; you can't do it; they know you. 

"If there's anything that I tip my hat to it is lo a 
man whose life is like an open book with every page 
as clean as the heart o>f God." Referring to the fact 
that some of his utterances might displease Mr. Jones 
said, "Any man in this town can write anything he 
pleases about Sam Jones just so he'll put his name 
to it, that's all I want," and then, ominously, "I'm in 
the show business." 

Then getting back to his subject of the futility of 
trying to hide one's life, he said, "Be sure your sins 
will find you out." You old vestryman that ain't living 
right — you're the laughing stock of the town; and you 
little preacher that goes to dances and wine suppers — 



218 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

you devil's little billie goat, you; they're laughing at 
you. 

"Listen again: It is absolutely impossible to prac- 
tice fraud on God Almighty. He knows you from 
crown to heel. Listen to me — everything is open and 
naked to him, and what's more, he goes behind the 
act and sees the motive that prompted it. 

"So you see you can't practice fraud on yourself, on 
your neighbor, nor on your God. This is truism recog- 
nized by the whole world; and another that is recog- 
nized by Jew, Christian, infidel and atheist is that 
whatsoever you sow that also shall you reap. We know 
it is true of the physical world about us. I sow wheat 
and I reap wheat; I sow peas and I reap peas. So you 
see, like produces like — and, listen to me — another 
fact is that it multiplies to the harvest. One grain of 
the oat will grow 8,200 grains; 8,200 grains will make 
fifty bushels, and that sowed again a like proportion, 
and so on, and on, until from the one grain the world 
might be buried forty feet deep in oats. 

"In the 'Garden of Eden Adam sowed the one little 
sin, so has it multiplied that to-day it fills the world. 
Like begets like, and that which ye sow that also shall 
ye reap. 

"Sow whiskey and you reap drunkards. Do you 
know that in Savannah there are 250 licensed dens of 
iniquity where liquor is sold, and to these must be 
added the clubs and the drug stores where it is sold. 
And do you know that the average sales a day are $20 
— a low estimate for they can't live on less; and they 



AND TKUNDBKBOLTS. 219 

sell it to the poor drunkard, and the wrecked young 
man, and the big cusses, too, those that drink it. 

"Mr. Jones then gave the following comparative 
figures which he said had been furnished him by a 
county official who is in a position to know the facts: 

One year's receipt by 250 saloons, averaging 

$20 a day $1,825,000 

Cost of all the churches in Savannah 600,000 

Cost of all schools in Savannah 264,000 

All charitable institutions 100,000 

All city and county public buildings 250,000 



Total $1,214,000 

< 

"These figures show/' said Mr. Jones, "that putting 
all your public buildings, churches and charitable in- 
stitutions in the scale of cost against it, you yet pay in 
twelve months more for whiskey than you have paid 
for the building of the institutions, your whiskey bill 
being the larger by $611,000 

Or again: 
The cost of all your county schools and churches 

is $ 40,000 

Of the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences. 150,000 

Bethesada Orphan Home . 60,000 

Hospitals 100,000 

Total $350,000 

"The cost of these buildings and institutions added 



220 LIGHTNING CLASHES 

to those of the city still falls short by $261,000 of 
reaching in value the cost of the liquor bill. 

"Think of it! In twelve months you pay enough 
for whiskey to replace every church, school, charitable 
organization, and public building in the city and 
count}', and still have enough to run the public schools 
for three solid years. 

f<! See what it cost you in order that 250 fatter ed, 
bullnecked rascals shall feast! A woman came to the 
hotel to-day and told me that her husband was a 
drunken debauchee, that she had no bread for her chil- 
dren, and that one of them was already in jail. Think 
of that picture, and yet these heartless, soulless and 
damnable officials look on and laugh and no word is 
said though a certain official has cream in his pen. 

"I told you to pray, brethren," he said, turning to 
the ministers, "and I hope you are doing it. Here, you 
ministers of GTod have stood in your pulpits trying to 
save souls while the devil has got your town floating 
it off to hell in currents of liquor. Under sa-th con- 
ditions I don't see how you made the progress that 
you have. 

"I preached in the jail yesterday. There are the 
unfortunate ones, but they are not sinners above 
all in Savannah. Ninety-five per cent of tlieia were 
brought to that place by liquor. 

"As for clubs where liquor is sold, why I've got as 
much use for the lowest dive of a saloon as I have 
for these clubs, no matter who is the president of it. 
If I were a pastor of a church and had a member who 



iAND THUNDERBOLTS. 221 

was also a member of a club where liquor was sold 
I'd kick Mm out of the church. Think of a man that 
passes the hat in my church in the morning passing 
beer in the Yacht Club in the evening. Ain't he a 
dandy ? 

"Then there's the corruption at the ballot box. Take 
the gambler and the saloon keepers' money out of the 
election and you'd get a better complexion of officials. 
No, you talk about 'cracker' and 'Catholic.' What do I 
care? I'm neither cracker nor 'Catholic, but I've got 
a contempt for a perjured officer, whether he be either 
cracker or Catholic. If a man's decent drop your pre- 
judice and vote once for Sally and the Baby. 
_ "If there's a travesty on justice and a farce on juris- 
prudence practiced anywhere in God's world, its prac- 
ticed in Savannah. Do you know that the judge of 
your Superior Court has said that the reason he fines 
the gamblers that are brought before him, rather than 
imprison them, is because his court officials must live. 
Think of it ! The court officials must live on the money 
filched from the poor devils and then divided with the 
prosecuting attorney." The preacher was interrupted 
by the applause that followed this remark. Then he 
went on as soon as he could be heard. 

"A leading citizen of this town — and I know what 
I'm talking about when I say a leading citizen— told me 
that before the last election he went to a certain official 
and said: 'Sir, before I can consent to vote for you 
I want to ask you one question: If elected will you 
suppress gambling?' He said 'Yes,' and if said official 



222 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

wants the name of this man he can make a demand on 
Sam Jones and it'll be forthcoming. 

^Corruption at the ballot box and a corrupt vote will 
yield a harvest of sin. Now talk about Sam Jones and 
talk about a fellow lying! 

"Listen to me! I'm going to make you fellows in 
this audience who are decent back a movement to stop 
this sort of thing or run into your pusillanimous holes, 
and pull the hole in after you." This statement was 
greeted with applause and laughter. 

"Whenever anything is said or done to try to help 
matters the dirty rascals cry out 'spy system.' And yet 
they continue to milk the cows, and give the milk to 
the calves iand the cream to the old bull. 

"How many of you, asked Mr. Jones, 'believe that 
Sam Jones ought to be supported?' The decision was 
unanimously in the affirmative. Mr. Jones smiled, 
looked aid over the tabernacle and then drawled: c Ain't 
a dissenter, the Mayor ain't here.' Slowly turning to 
the rear of the platform where Mr. S. B. Adams sat, 
Mr. Jones as though catching sight of him for the 
first time, remarked, f Why Brother 'Sam Adams, you 
ain't got no more sense of humor than a dead man. Why 
didn't you just say "yes," to the Mayor and have me ar- 
rested. You don't know what fun is." 

After another brief but graphic picture of the evils 
of drink, the evangelist remarked, "And its becoming 
fashionable to drink wine. I tell you, sis, when you 
go and tank up on wine or beer, you ain't able to take 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 223 

care of yourself, and the woman that ain't able to take 
care of herself is gone now." 

"Sassiety ! I have got no respect for it. To get in 
it there are three essentials — you've got to drink wine 
or whiskey, dance and play cards, and there ain't a 
one of these three essentials, outside of the possible need 
of good clothes, in which every nigger can't beat the 
white folks. Do you catch on to that? Now, what 
do you say to that, you bucks and buckesses, down 
there ? 

"I stand for sobriety in men and purity in women, 
and I'll say this that I, Sam Jones, never was at a 
dance, sober, in my life, and never saw a really intelli- 
gent person in a ballroom. Do you hear that, you danc- 
ing cattle? 

"If I were a fair average dancing young buck at 30, 
and I think I was, I tell you from my experience that 
no pure sweet young girl can afford to go into a ball- 
room. 

"•Some of you dancing bucks down there say, 'What, 
you dare impugn my honor? You ain't got no 
honor, you devil, you. 

"How in the name of God you looked at the hoochee 
cooche I don't understand. There's no evidence that the 
Mayor tried to suppress that is there — eh ? 

"And you women, you'd better let punch bowls alone, 
too. That Dewey punch, for instance. I was warned 
about that stuff before I came. 

"Now, I want to say that I'm going to give you half 
an hour to think in, then Fm going to make you get up 



224: LIGHTNING FLASHES 

and endorse all that I've said or hug those benches 
mighty close. And you can't say I didn't give you 
notice. I don't believe in giving a Methodist hurrah 
sermon with no time to think, but rather a Presby- 
terian deliberation. Ain't is so, Brother Anthony?" 

The evangelist related a touching story of a father 
•who had killed his son while in a drunken fit, "and 
yet," he said, "You'll drink that stuff and call your- 
selves gentlemen. You whiskey-soaked red-nosed devils, 
you." 

"And the poor woman she has to take it. If a wo- 
man went on a three-day drunk and then went home to 
her husband, he would apply for a divorce and get it, 
and yet she's got to >put up with your old whiskey-soaked 
carcass every day. You old buzzards, you. It's the 
men I'm talking to, not you sister, don't get my meta- 
phors mixed. 

"Some folks are whispering it round, f I think Sam 
Jones does good to the lower classes, but I don't want 
my children to hear him.' But! where's they bin? If 
I haven't been as decent as the nature of the case would 
admit, I ain't no horse doctor at all. Wherever I've 
been, it wasn't the pure sweet mother or the conscient- 
ious wife that kicked at my style. In every city that 
I have been in I have preached to the noblest women 
and the best people. Those who have been opposed to 
me have been the gamblers, the debauchees, the drunk- 
ards, and others of that elk. 

"©a scorn," said the speaker, turning with a quizzical 
smile to Kev. Bascom Anthony, "don't you think my 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 225 

style is as nice as it could be and reach, the case ? Now 
be honest." Mr. Anthony's reply was drowned in the 
roar of laughter that followed the sally, but it must 
have been satisfactory to the evangelist. 

Cards was the next ,subject discussed. "Sow cands 
and reap gamblers," the evangelist said. "Listen to me ! 
Ninetynfive per cent of gamblers are most elegant gen- 
tlemen and grew up in the so-called Christian homes. 
The mother that will play cards before her children has 
done a deed that she can't recall/' 

It was at this part of the meeting that Mr. Jones 
appeared to be first struck with the idea of a woman's 
meeting for he announced, after the premonitory, "Lis- 
ten to me !" that tomorrow he would hold a meeting 
for women, and that it would be a regular old hen party. 
"You are going to be astonished," he remarked to the 
audience. "You thought that darky crowd a big one, 
but wait till you see this meeting. 'There'll be a bigger 
crowd and if 11 include all classes. There will be the 
lady with her silk and diamonds, and even old grandma 
with her chin and her nose meeting. Dont forget 
Wednesday at 4 o'clock I'm going to entertain the sis- 
terin. Some will come with all their children, and 
some, the Sassiety. Some folks will come with none 
at all or just two, that's the limit — you understand." 

Then Mr. Jones got back to card-playing and drink- 
ing. "God pity the man or woman," he said, "who 
can't run a home without wine and cards. I know this 
isn't popular talk in Savannah and that I'm just cut- 
ting the grit from under the most 'principalest' people 



226 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

in town. Some of them though, will say 'What do I 
care what tihe blackguard says. He doesn't affect me. 
I'm a whale, and if there's anything bigger, I'm that.' 

"Let me tell you : you can say what you please, but 
the square dance leads to the round dance and the 
round dance to the hoochee-coochee. If I had to fur- 
nish children for the ballroom I'd furnish boys. A 
boy may fall a thousand times, but if a woman falls 
once, she's lost, you'd hetter look out. 

"And sister the way you fix up for the ballroom with 
your modern decollete is an outrage to modesty and de- 
cency. 

"Why if I cut off my coat and vest and other clothes 
right here," said Mr. Jones, drawing a line across his 
breast, "and went clown the street with my shoulders 
hare I'd be arrested by the police. I might say it's 
the modern decollete, but he'd say 'that don't matter, 
you're a man and have no right to wear it.' I'm thank- 
ful there's some protection for a man. 

"You ain't blushing, are you brethren?" the evange- 
list asked as he turned to the ministers. There was 
no audible answer from them and the question was not 
asked the congregation as the fact that many were 
blushing was too palpable to need any inquiry to develop 
it. 

Mr. Jones again referring to his own experience, said 
that when he was young he too had frolicked, danced 
and had a big time, but when he decided to get mar- 
ried he told all of the ballroom girls good bye, went 
away off to Kentucky and married a prayer-meeting 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 227 

girl, "and, he continued." I wouldn't give her for all 
your ballroom girls. 

'Continuing the same subject he said that round danc- 
ing was northing in the /world but hugging set to music, 
and that no decent girl would think of sitting in the 
parlor and .allowing a young man to get the grip on her 
that he used in the round dance. 

Then the evangelist made another interruption in the 
line of thought to say: "Some of you fellows said 
Sam Jones won't talk in Savannah like he talked in 
Way cross. Lord, you don't know this mule; there 
ain't no telling when he'll kick or bite, or with what 
end he'll kick or bite." 

"You (people saw the hooehee-cooehee dance and then 
try to make out Sam Jones ain't decent. Why, I'm 
simply a kodak; I show you a picture, don't blame the 
kodak if the scene is dirty. If God Almighty had in- 
tended women to go naked on the shoulders 'he'd have 
covered them with hair or feathers." 

After some further remarks on the same subject the 
evangelist referred to the visible results in other towns 
of some of his evangelis'tic work, and said that he 
thanked God that though he had led many young men 
away from the church in his youth he had by his la- 
bors managed to bring them all back to the fold. Ha 
made, as he had promised he would, the congregation 
endorse his remarks, and then he asked those that would 
try to lead a better life to come forward and give him 
their hand. Hundred's went forward and took the 
pledge. 



228 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



r n 



THE DEVIL'S IN IT. SAM JONES POINTS OUT 

THE EVIL OF DANCING. HAS FUN 

WITH THE MINISTERS. 

TOLD THE WOMEN THEY ARE BETTER THAN THE MEN. 

"The reason of it 'because they're asleep before 
the men commence their deviltry." Called the 
theaters dirty and told why he condemned the 
hoochee coochee. Good advice about paying debts. 
"The man that buys goods and doesn't pay for them 
a thief." Wives often to blame for husband being 
in debt. Jones story of his own experience. 

Eev. ;Sam Jones turned loose another warm talk at 
the tabernacle yesterday afternoon, though it was not so 
cutting as that of the night before. It was more hu- 
morous, too, rendered so by the many asides to the 
ministers, who were called on frequently, either indivi- 
dually or collectively, to answer questions or to indorse 
utterances. 

In his preliminary remarks, Eev. Mr. Jones an- 
nounced that this afternoon he will talk to wives, 
•mothers and daughters. "The men need gospel/' he 
said, "and the women, too. I shall talk very plain, 
but no plainer than you need, and there'll be no gen- 
tlemen present — though the pastors will be here." This 
sally w T as greeted with a ripple of laughter from the 
audience. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 229 

Mr. Jones founded hie sermon on Phil. 4:8, "Final- 
ly, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever 
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatso- 
ever things are pure, whatsoever ijhings are lovely, whatw 
soever things are of good report ; if there he 'any virtue, 
and if there he any .praise, think on these things. 

"Now, St. Paul gives us here Christianity in the 
concrete; he tells us what it is; it is to do whatsoever 
things are true, and honest, and just, and pure, and 
lovely, and of good report. He tells us to think on 
these things. Now, if you recognize the fact that there 
is purity tae opposed to impurity; that, there is honesty 
as opposed to dishonesty; that there is such a thing 
ae right opposed to wrong; think about them. 

"And I want to say there is no drunkard but rec- 
ognized there is such a thing as a sober life and wants 
his wife and his children to lead it; there's no thief 
that .dosen't know there's such a thing as honesty, and 
is anxious that others should deal honestly by him; 
and there's no liar that doesn't know that there is the 
truth, and is not anxious for everybody to use it in 
their dealings with him. So you see that right and 
wrong are as contradictory as black is to white, as day 
is- to nijght. Now Paul tells us what to think about. 
The man is never higher than his thoughts .so Pm going 
'to ask you what is thought? It is the result of an 
impression made through one of the five senses. I'm 
not talking about intuitional tihoughts. Now as this is 
so a fellow ought to be careful about what he sees and 
what he hears. That is one reason that I don't want 



230 LIGHTNING ULAISHES 

my children to go to the dirty theaters and it is why 
I rebuked you last night for the hoochee-cooehee dance. 
And thait's the harm in diancing. The devil's in it 
1 tell you. You know that no boy would walk across 
the street to dance with another boy, nor would a girl 
go across the street to dance with another girl. I 
tell you the devil's in it. 

"Now listen ! you'd better be careful of what you see 
and hear, and touch, for they (put you to thinking. The 
purest life is that you don't see, and that is why wo- 
men are better than men; they don't see s*> mucK 
They're all in bed and asleep before the men start their 
devilment. Why, that fat sister there is asleep and 
snoring." 

'Mr. Jones swept his arm toward the audience, as 
though pointing out the "fat sister," and everybody 
in the immediate neighborhood began to size up the 
plump ladies to discover the snorer. 

"Now, that you know What thought is," continued 
Mr. Jones, "I'll tell you what an idea is. It's a de- 
veloped thought, or as the school boy once said, 'It's the 
thought thunk out.' 

"Wesley is believed to have preached all over Sa- 
vannah. Since I've been in this town almost every 
block and square that I've come to somebody hae point- 
ed out as the place where Wesley preached. And the 
people di'dn^t like h^m either. How <many times was 
he arrested, Btascom? He asked, turning to Eev. Bas- 
com Anthony. 'Only once, so far as I can learn,' said 
Mr. Anthony, 'though I believe there was a warrant 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 231 

out for him several times. 5 'Huh V grunted Mr. Jones, 
'Sam Adams w&sm't city attorney then, or maybe 
they'd a got his advice before they arrested him.' 

"Well," continued Mr. Jones, again taking the 
thought of his address "Wesley hals .said that you can't 
prevent the birds of the air from flying over your 
head, but you can prevent them building nests in your 
haiT. So, vou cant keep evil thoughts from coming 
into your head, but you can prevent them abiding there 
until they develop into an idea. 

"Now, listen to me! 'Think on these things.' You 
may gaze on a corpse until you saturate your mind 
with the gloom of the grave, or you gaze on a bouquet 
oif flowers until your Whole nature is filled with its 
beauty and aroma. We partake of the thing we look 
at, and that is why it is written 'Evil communications 
corrupt good manners,' and also 'Birds of a feather 
flock together.' 

"Do you know a man or a woman can tfix the mind 
and heart on tru A th and think and speak the truth 
<a!s .naturally as one .breathes. And the same is true 
off a lie. You've seen constitutional liars, haven't 
you? M'ost folks have some lies in their by-laws, but 
some have them in their constitution. Form a char- 
acter of integrity, tell the truth, if it cuts the grit 
from under you. If a man or a woman tells you what 
you know to be untrue you never trust them again. 
Many a Savannah mother can't trust her child. 
Many a kid tells has mother where he's been the night 
before and she don't know where he's been yet. Up 



232 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

at the hotel only a day or two ago a mother was asked 
by her boy privilege to come to these meetings,, but he 
didn't come, iand when ,she heard of him again he was in 
jail. Haven't you seen fellows that couldn't tell the 
truth even if ,you gave them three square trials at it. 

"God pity 'the Woman that can't trust every word 
her husband tells her. IVs g'ood-bye to peafce in that 
home. There was a husband once that went out almost 
every night iand always told his wife that he was busy 
posting 'the books. Well ,one night she put a -pedometer 
in his .pocket, and when he came home she looked at 
it and found that he had waited 17 miles. He'd been 
playing pool. And many a woman in this town could 
catch her husband if she'd pin something on him that 
would tell the tale of where he'd been. Happiness is 
gone when a wife can't trust her husband and when 
a husband can't trust a wife. 

"Now listen ! 'Whatsoever things are honest.' Being 
honest doesn't mean merely paying your debts; that's 
the lowest kind of honesty. You have to pay them 
to keep from being a thief. There are two kinds of 
a thief; the fellow that comes in when you don't know 
it and takes your property, and the fellow that buys 
from merchants and then doesn't pay for it. Now I'm not 
talkting about the fellow that can't pay. But see some 
tof these society folks that have a big entertainment, 
and buy cake and ice cream and can't pay for them; 
a lot of folks having a swell time at the expense of 
other people. And see the big rascal that goes bank- 
rupt and then goes to boarding with his wife, I've got 



AMD TKUNDBRBOT/TiS. 233 

no respect for him. I like my wife and I'd do .most 
anything for her 'cept sign my name agent for her. 
Nto, sir! ,When we ride the same horse, Fm going 
to ride in front. I ain't going to ride behind no wo- 
man. What! my wife have something I ain't got! 
Lordy me, no sudh in mine. Me and my wife are the 
same folks and what one's got 'the other's got. Under- 
stand that? We started even; she with her clothes, 
and I with mine, ,and if my .daddy or her daddy ever 
gave us a nickel we lost it before we got home. 

"Take a ground start and go up, if you go at all. 
You know a fellow on his back can't fall down. 
Many a man has 'been ruined by being born ridh. Bas- 
com, ''and he tooik another jab at Mr. Anthony,' if 
you had been born rich wouldn't you have gone to dhe 
devil — eh? And, Bascom, the devil like to got you 
as it was, didn^t he? 

"Believe in honesty and truth first and let what 
will -come along. Nlow, take the question of debt. You 
wives who run your husband into debt, make more ras- 
cals than anything else except whiskey. There's the 
wife itihat won't help her husband to pay his -debts. She 
refused .to cook, Its 'if I can't have .a cook 111 go to 
boarding,' sadd the speaker, imitating a finicky, queru- 
lous, feminine voice. 'Ybu're doing your husband dam- 
age, and there's no doubt of that. 

"Now listen to me! I've been poor white folks — 
poor as a dog, poor as two dogs. And bless your heart 
nry wife has cooked, and my wife is a gdod cook, and 
I like my wife as a cook. And I could go in the kitch- 



234 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

en and kiss and hug the cook. I can't do it now or 
thereM be the mischief, but I used to hug and kiss 
my cootk many a time. 

"If you're going ,to be religious you've got to be 
honest. The hardest thing you can say about a preach- 
er is that he doesn't pay his debts, and it's as hard a 
'thing as jou .can say aibouit any man. Why in the 
Hardshell Baptist Church they'll turn a member out 
who doesn't pay his debts. (Most of these Hardsftiells 
get to heaven, too, cause one half's good men, and 
-the other half ain*t gat sense enough to be responsible. 
They say every honest man's got a nation, of -hair in 
the palm of his hand. Did you ever look at your 
hand ? 

''When Fm dea)d if they don't put anything else on 
my tombstone Fd like 'em to put this: 'Here lies ^an 
honest man.' I hope it won't be like another case 'that 
I heard of, though. A lawyer died and .was buried 
and one day a .man came along and saw his tomb- 
stone and on it was 'John Smith, a lawyer and an 
honest man lies here,' and fihe man stood 'there look- 
ing at the tomb so long that the sexton came and 
asked, 'Some of your folks?' ( 'No,' said the man, 
'Friends, then,' suggested the sexton, 'No,' said iihe 
man ; I am just a wondering why they .put two fellows, 
a lawyer and an honest man, in the same grave/ 

"Now listen to me! A fellow ought to be juslt be- 
fore he's generous. But its easier to be generous than 
it is to be just. Why, there ain't one man in a hun- 
dred that is just to his wife ; and there ain't one moth- 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 235 

er in a 'hundred that's just :i)o her chiMren. And now 
you church members ; do you think you're just to your 
pastors? You say, 'Why, yes, I pay him hie salary.' 
Well, that's the smallest thing you've got to do — to 
pay him hie salary; and anyway, I don't know a city 
in the 'country that pays them less. Do you reckon any 
of your preachers lay up money? Do you, any of you 
preachers Jay up any money?' he asked, turning to the 
ministers .on ! the platform. Mr. Anthony, answering 
for himself, said, "Well, I don't, while the others re- 
mained silent. 

''Well," saftd Mr. Jones, again turning to the audi- 
ence, "Bascom says he ain't, anyway ;" then again speak- 
ing to his congregation he said, "Why there's one man 
in Trinity Church that ought to pay as .much as the 
church pays. The most liberal church is the Presby- 
terian, and t)he most economical is the Methodist. Tlhe 
Presbyterians ,ought to be most liberal, cause they ain*t 
much else." 

Mr. Jones discussed "whatsoever is lovely" .and said 
the liveliest thing in this wtorld is ia sweet, noble, pure 
Ohnisllran girl. You can't beat her this side of heaven." 
He talkea of ^h'e neeJd of going to Sunday School and 
prayer-meeting, tlhen turned to Mr. Anthony again 
wtfth "Bascom, don't you hope your grayer-meeting 
•will be full next Thursday night? But if it was," he 
continued, "it is time," speaking to the people, "he'd get 
soared arid run home for the oaimphor botfcle before 
he lainted." 

Before he concluded his address, Mr. Jones got back 



236 LIGHTMNKJ FLASHES 

to the subject of prohibition^ and said thiat .lie hoped 
to see the day when not only would 'there not be a 
saloon in SavanDah, but not ,one in the .State, a state- 
ment that was greeted with dheers. Just before the 
benedibtion he 'ag&in arinounced that Ms purpose in 
coming to SavamMi was to ,save every soul that could 
be saved and to bankrupt every dirty institution in 
town. 

Numbers accepted his invitation to propose persons 
for (prayer. The •meeting was closed by Mr. Jones ask- 
ing 'that each of his hearers pr'ay at about .sunset for 
the success of the Bight meeting. . 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 23' 



A MAN MUST CHOOSE. LIFE OF GOOD OE 
EVIL A MATTER OF VOLITION. 

JONES WILL PKEACH TO WOMEN". SERVICE THIS AFTER- 
NOON WILL BE EXCLUSIVELY FOR THEM. 

Rain, falling in torrents before and during ser- 
vice, did not prevent tabernacle from being filled. 
The sermon without sensational incident and with 
but little of the mannerisms and character touches 
of the speaker to distinguish it. A man's life a 
matter of his own choice. What he does is the thing 
that counts. 

There were no sensational features and but few of 
! the sjpeech.es that the ,public has come to regard as 
peculiarly dharacteristic \oi R<ev. .Sam Jones in the ser- 
mon ,the evangelist delivered in ime Park Tabern ! acle 
last night. In essence and treatment it was a strong 
invention to right thinking and right living. 

It had been raining, and raining hand and fast, for 
an hour before the crowd began to assemble at the 
tabernacle, r an'd while the rain kept many .away, it still 
did not interfere very materially either with the size or 
tfhe com'poslition of tt'lie (audience. .It filled the taber- 
nacle almost completely, and it comprised men, women 
an'd chiUdren. If anything, the women were ,present 
in larger proportion than is usual, notwithstanding the 
rain continued to fall in torrents. 



238 LIGiHTNTNlG FLASHES 

The song service was concluded with. <a duet fc by 
•Messers. Tillman and Baimsey, who sang one of .the 
favorites that has caught the fancy of the tabernacle 
congregation, "The Broken Pinion." 

'Mr. Jones ,hegan ,his sermon with, .the announcements 
for to-day and tomorrow. This afternoon at four 
wloefc:, he announced, he will speak to the women of 
Saviannah, the mothers, wives and daughters of the 
city. "I shall expeot the pastors who have assisted 
me in thjese services and the newspaper reporters to 
be present, but otherwise I expect to address an audi- 
ence 'exclusively of .women. Of course, I ^would not 
say anything to an .audience -of women I /would not say 
were their fathers and husbands .present, but some- 
tirnes it does good ^to hudldle you sisters up together 
■and tell you some plaHn facts." 

"Of course, this is not customary in Savannah, but 
I am not running after ;Savannah .customs. Pm not 
liere to follow t!he Savannah |ashiion, but to set the 
fashion otf Savannah. I'm glad to welcome this great 
congregation tonight. It hetokens an .interest that is 
overwhelming." 

The preacher's text was from the Book of Joshua 
and the senroon /proper begun with some .allusions to 
the gifts of the Almighty tlhatt had been showered 
during his lifetime on Joshua's head. "When we 
read the Book, we are kept wondering constantly at 
the continued instances of Ood's favor .shown to Jos- 
hua and marvelling if ever man had been so favored 
anVl so bleaseicl. We read on ,and on, and instances of 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 23<) 

God's mercy are multiplied and His factors increased. 
And this not a word of thanks from Joshua, not an ex- 
pression of gratitude. We come to think he is an ingrate 
— flhe most ungrateful man who ever lived. We reach the 
laist chapter and nearly the last verse of the book before 
Joshua opens his mouth to voice such an expression, but 
when he did open his mouth, he said something. I 
wish everybody was thait .way." 

The text was from Joshua, 24 :15 : "Oioose ye 
this diay whom ye will serve; but ats for me and my 
house we will serve the Lord." 

"There is a ring of manhood and independence in 
the text that I admire. Give me an independent man, 
<a man who is not afradd to follow what his own con- 
science tells him is the right. The thing 'that is hurt- 
ing old iSavannah to-*day is 'that 'the spirit of pure 
manhood and indeipendenlce is dying out. You go 
in cliques and clans and factions, and you do what 
others do. 

"You go wftth the crowd and when in Savannah yoa 
do as .SajVannaih does. iWIhen yon are in church in 
the morning, you follow the church fashion, and when 
you are at the Yacht 'Olu'b in the afternoon, you fol- 
low the Yacht Club fashion. You are sheep or goat, 
according to the company ytou happen to be keeping. 

"Give me a man who dares do what he knows to be 
his duty, no master what Others say <or what others 
do. 'Give me the mian who isayte that, "Tf there are only 
twelve men in Savannah who will follow the pa'th of 
duty and of right, I will be one of the twelve; if there 



240 LIGHTNING CLASHES 

are only )six men in Savannah who will do this, I will 
be one of the six ; if there is -only one, by the grace 
and help of Gdd, I will be that one/ It has come to 
be the best possible excuse for a man to say, 'Why 
everybody does that/ 

'"'Say whait you thlink yourseM, bud. I've read of a 
rougish fellow who advertised, hdte willingness to teach 
the principles of 'oratory m a single lesson to any man 
who would serid him five dollars. Some people sent 
him the money and received in reply a slip of paper, 
hearing the following directions: Tirst, get some- 
thing to say; .second isay it, third, sit down.' There 
was a good, loukl laugh at Ms and the speaker added : 

"Well you know that's isense arid ifs worth more 
than fwe dollars to some preachers I know. I mean 
some South Carolina preachers,' he amended. 

"Don't you go around doing things just because 
they're customary. It ain't necessary. It's customary 
to drink whiiskey in Savannah, but I've been here some 
time and I ain't drunk any. And I ain't going to, 
either. Ifs customary *to cuss, hut I haven't cussed. 
I don't do it; I won't follow any of your customs. 

"There a'in't but two Savannah customs that I'm 
going to follow, arid they are eating and sleeping. I've 
got -to eat and I always (sleep whenever I can find any- 
thing to roost on." 

Mr. Jones turned again upon the clubs of the city, 
which he 'denounced as not hotter Hihan saloons. The 
only difference between them, he ,said, was that in one 
a man had -to istarid up and get has own 'drink and 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 241 

in the other he sat down in a handsome leather-cush- 
ioned chair and had it brought to him. 

"Itf you've got money yon can get in any of them, 
and money is all that yon need. As I've said hefore 
the real difference between the 'dude and the bum is 
a matter of clothes and perfume; with one they are 
'imported and With the other are home-made. 

"'Goodness is a matter of choice. A man can be 
good or bad, as he pleases. He said he di'd not be- 
lieve that God Almighty himself could make a man 
a Christian before he wanted to be. The trouble about 
•the ordinary chunch mem'ber is that he will not make 
a choice between good things and evil, hut when the 
choice lis ofrere'd him he reaches out his hands, encir- 
cles the whole lot with his arms and says, 'Yes, thank 
you ; Fll take 'em all/ The impotence of the heaven- 
ly Father to force a man to do right, he illustrated by 
stories showing how unable an earthly father was to 
mould the inclination of his boy. The father can 
not make his son to he anything against his will. 

'"You understand what I'm talking about. It's 
sense, it's not theology, but its sense, good hard common 
sense. Do you know, common sense is the most un- 
common thing on this earth. 

"You can be a Christian if you want to be," he said, 
and a deep voice from the benches where sit the colored 
portion of the congregation, "Yes, God, dat's so?" 
"You all holler at the wrong time, said the preacher." 

He expressed his contempt for the man who says he is 
going to reform tomorrow, or next week, or next month. 



242 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

"You 'keep on talking that way, bud, and the devil 
will get you. But, thank God, he won't get much. — 
that's one consolation." Not only could a man by mak- 
ing his choice decide he would be a Christian and lead 
a Christian life, but he could say when he would be 
a Christian and what sort of a Christian he would be. 
There was every type, he said, in every congrega- 
tion. 

"Bascom," turning to Rev. Mr. Anthony, "You've 
got some in your congregation that were lying flat on 
their backs when you came to Savannah, and they're 
lying there yet, ain*t they?" Mr. Anthony nodded 
his head in somewha't reluctant assent, and the evan- 
gelist, turning triumphantly to the audience, an- 
nounced, "He says 'they is." 

The incessant laughter of some small boys who sat 
close beneath the platform seemed just a trifle to 
disconcert him, for after a more than usually vigorous 
and long-continued oufburst from them he looked down 
and said: "You boys don't know when to laugh; sit 
still now and when the time comes, I'll tell you." 

Mr. Jones told an experience he haid while Conduct- 
ing a revival in Charleston. A member of his congre- 
gation had come to him and 'told him of twelve young 
people who had been confirmed on Sunday morning 
and attended a german an ( d danced on Monday evening. 
The evangelist said he thad received -the news with 
great calmness. "What of it?" he had asked his in- 
formant. "Why it's so soon after they were confirmed," 
he had been toM. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 243 

f *Well, I said I thought if a m>an had to do devil- 
merit the sooner he got at it the better. If he moist 
drink, or play cards, or dance, he'-d better do it and 
get through with it, and then be a respectable member 
of the chuiteh, for he can^ be a respectable 'member 
of the church and do these things. He can in Sa- 
vannah, I know, but I mean generally." 

The remainder of the sermon consisted principally 
of appeals to men to 'forsake the ba^d and live for 'God 
and the right. "How many of you will take a -stand 
for yourself? How many of you will say, "I choose 
to be a 'Christian?" In response to this invitation a 
great numiber came up to the platform, grasped the 
evangelist's hand and promised to lead 'better lives. 

A pathetic incident of the after service was Mr. 
Jones 7 reference to little Walter Tuilis, a 12-year-old 
lad who ba>d heen converted last week at one of the 
services, had intended to unite himself* with the church 
on Sunday, but had been too ill to do so, and had dieVl 
on "Monday. iFis funeral had taken place but a few 
hours before the meeting. 



244 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



•TONES TO THE WOMEN". FIVE THOUSAND 

HBAKD HIM AND INDORSED WHAT 

HE SAID. 

THE TABERNACLE THRONGED WITH AN AUDIENCE REP- 
RESENTING EVERY PHASE OF LIFE. 

All classes of society represented in the great 
gathering and the women not only listened patient- 
ly, but lent .their endorsement to what was said. 
Society roundly scored. Card playing, drinking 
and dancing all condemned. A woman's influence 
the theme of the evangelist's story. She leads in 
good and evil. 

Eev. Sam Jones preached to an audience of between 
four and five thousand women at the Park Tabernacle 
yesterday afternoon. They represented every grade of 
Savannah society, and though those usually referred 
to as the middle and upper middle classes were there 
in larger numbers, perhaps, than any other, there was 
not a social grade that lacked its delegates. 

Whatever the motive that brought them there, curi- 
osity or the desire to be amused or something better 
than either, there they were, and for more than an 
hour they listened with breathless attention and absorbed 
interest to the words of the evangelist. More than that ; 
when he had brought his sermon to a close, they arose 
to their feet, in response to his invitation, indorsed 



AIND TBOUNDEEBOiLTS. 2Vo 

what he had said, accepted it as applicable to condi- 
tions in Savannah life and society and took it home to 
themselves, agreeing they would do what in them lay 
to make of themselves better mothers, 'better wives, 
better daughters and better sisters. 

It was a hen party, sure enough. The only men in 
the audience were the pastors of the city churdhes who 
have assisted in the evangelical services and a pair of 
newspaper reporters. When it oame time to take up a 
collection there were no ushers present to perform this 
duty and the preachers and the reporters circulated 
among the women and passed the plates for donations. 
It is safe to say it was an unaccustomed and unusual 
role for them all — more unusual for the reporters, pos- 
sibly than for the preachers. 

Mr. Jones began his talk by congratulating him- 
self on his audience, on the interest in the meetings 
it betokened and the good to result from the meetings 
that it promised. "Since I have been in Savannah,'' 
he said, "I have seen the consciences of hundreds of 
indifferent, thoughtless, careless church members awak- 
ened and hundreds of sinners repent their misdeeds 
and resolve in the future to give themselves and their 
energies to God and the right. 

"There have been held already two services specially 
for men, in which what I had to say was addressed 
principally and primarily to tlhe fathers, husbands and 
sons of the city. This is the first and only service 
specially for women and wihat I'm going to say this 
afternoon is to the mothers, wives, sisters and claugh- 



246 LIGHTNING PLASHES 

ters of Savannah. This is a marvelous audience. The 
influence it might exert is immeasurable; and influ- 
ences that might change the whole future 'history of 
Savannah. If you will all resolve to lead in the fu- 
ture a Christian life the history of Savannah will be 
changed marvelously for the better. 

"I'm not going to take any special text this after- 
noon, butt try to speak to you on the line suggested by 
three of tfhe sweetest words in the language, words, too, 
that are always associated together in our minds. They 
are *M other, Home and Heaven.' 

"Three words associated always in our minds. The 
best thing on this earth is a* good mother, and what 
is home without a mother, and how miay we ever find 
'the way to heaven, without the consecrated hand of a 
good mother to lead us? 

"Tne homes of our country are almost absolutely in 
the hands of the mothers of our country. It has 
often been said 'that 'the hand that rocks the cradle 
is the hand that rules the world,' and it is so. The 
influence of the mother gives dharaeter to the son and 
the daughter. The mother of Nero was a cruel and 
bloodthirsty woman, and her son was the most cruel 
man and the hloodthirstiest that ever disgraced the 
earth. The mother of Lord Byron was a proud and 
intellectual woman; and she gave the world a son who 
was the proudest intellectual prodigal it has known. 
The mother of John Wesley was a saintly and godly 
woman, and she blessed the world with two sons, whose 
lifework changed its religious history. Dwight L. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 247 

"Moody's mother was a plain, matter-of-fact, pains- 
taking woman, and her son was the most potent reli- 
gions influence of the last century. 

"So it is. You may searclh 'the pages of history and 
delve as deep into the forgotten past as you can reach, 
and you will find the same story repeated. Whoever 
else can afford to he flippant and foolish and Christ- 
less, there isn*fc -a mother on earth who can afford to 
pay the price. 

"I've said before, and I repeat it here, that woman 
heads the race heavenward and hellward. God pity the 
man who is 'better than his wife. If ^there is one person 
more than another who ought to fight the devil Hhree 
hundred, and sixty-five days in the year, it is a mother, 
for the devil is after husband, and son, and daughter. 
The mother is the pattern and the example, the one 
perfect woman on earth to the children of the home. 
No matter what your life may be, sister, no maltter 
whether it be harmful or hel,pful, you are to your 
daughter the grandest woman on earth. 

"You ought 'to set your children a good example, 
sister. The truth is we have ceased to control our 
children and just now we are trying to draw the line 
where our children shall stop bossing us. There never 
was a time when we needed more the goed, old-fashion- 
ed mammies and pappies; we've got nothing now but 
mamas and papas and the whole gang of you are not 
worth a rustti. 

"Some of you say you work too hard to look after 
your children; got too much to do. With some of you 



248 LIGHTNING FLAiSHES 

there's too much society, your club dulties take up too 
much of your time, and you turn your children over 
to the nurse and jump in your carriage and ri'de down 
town to the club, with a poodle dog sitting in your 
lap. I donU know how in the name of God some men 
put up with the things they've married. It's bad 
enouglh and hard enough to bear indifference and heart- 
lessness, but when a woman starts to 'club' a man to 
deafth, it must be awful. 

"Whenever a woman gets society in her head and 
the idea that clubs and parties and entertainments 
are all that life is made for, she has destroyed her 
power for good. Somebody on 'the platform has told 
me that some of your leading society women are out 
here to-day, and I'm glad of it. It's the first time 
I've got a chance at you gals, and if what I say don't 
do you good, it'll be because you (haven't got sense 
enough to understand it. You sit up there and say, 
111 tell my husband, and he'll come out here and lick 
you. No, he won't, sis. He'll say he is glad I licked 



you 



The two pillars that uphold a woman's character are 
purity and modesty. Knock down either of them and 
she's gone. When the devil once gets his foot on a 
woman's breast there is no dhance for her again. And 
I want to tell you the modest woman buttons her 
collar around her throat every time. God save me 
from the modern society woman that buttons hers 
around her waist. 

''Talk about woman blushing at what Sam Jones 



AND THUNDERBOLT'S. 249 

has said at these meetings. Well, Fve stood up here 
before you every night and I haven't seen any of them 
blush. I don't believe it and I've been looking right 
at you all the time. I can tell a woman's blushing if 
I'm looking at her, can't I ? He ! 

"And if I'd seen one of them blushing at what 
I said I would have rebuked. Law bless you, sis, this 
ain't the place to blush. This ain't even the place to 
turn up your nose and you know if a woman don't 
like what's goin on that's the first thing sfoe'll do. 
She'll kick up her nose. 

"B.apidly the preacher sketched some of the evils he 
had attacked during his stay in Savannah, stressing 
gambling hell's and 'drinking." "There are gambling 
hells on every side of you; tfhere are 250 saloons in 
Savannah, where is being poured out. every day and 
every night stuff that is floating your boy to hell. Why 
don't you blush and turn up your nose at these? 

"This ain't the place for it. Not here, where for 
two weeks we have fulminated against and 'denounced 
everything that ever ruined a boy or wrecked a home. 

"The beer-swigging women are afraid to come here 
• — afraid they will hear something that will overturn 
their conceit or shatter their vanity. But you good 
old mothers, you godly, Christian, praying women, 
have come here an'd sat here every day and every night, 
and some of you have come early and gone to roost 
before sundown. 

"Somebody asked me once what I had to do with 
society, wfhy I was always talking against society's 



250 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

doing and society people. I told them that once when 
I came back from a long and hard trip and asked my 
wife what was the greatest trouble she had to bear; 
she had told me it was having to refuse our children 
permission to do those things that were permitted by 
the parents of their young friends, and that sometimes 
they felt hurt at her and felt she was not treating 
them kindly, when she wou'ld not permit them to 'do 
things regarded as harmless by those they knew. 

"That's what I've got against society. You society 
women, so called, have been in the way of every good 
mother in Georgia, and I'm going to lambaste you 
every chance I get. 

"You women who will send } r our 'daughters to the 
corner grogshop to buy a bucket of beer for your din- 
ner! Sister, you ougfht to have been dead and in hell 
before a daughter was born at your house. Drink! 
Drink ! The rich drink champagne and the poor 'drink 
beer, 'and you niggers/ said the evangelist, turning 
to the colored portion of his feminine audience, 'drink 
anything you can get.' 

"Oh, you needn't to get mad at me. It's not the 
first time you've been mad, and you don't worry me a 
bit. If your husband would tell the truth, he'd say 
'Law me, Jones, that's just a train a passing. She 
does tlhat half the time.' 

'"Modesty. Teach your girl to be modest in her 
dress. I'll .tell you that since the girls in the towns 
have 'begun to cut off their dresses at the top for the 
ballroom and at the bottom for the bicycle, I'm getting 
uneasy about them. I am." 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 251 

There was a story to illustrate the craving of the 
average man and woman, who accumulate money, to 
enter society and the ruin and disgrace that sometimes 
follow. It had the ring of trutih and sincerity and 
it was skillfully told, and the mingling of tragedy and 
pathos, and human sin and human weakness, caused 
many a, handkerchief to creep stealthily to many an 
eye in every part of the tabernacle. 

"You women sit out there and say, T never could 
see any harm in dancing, or card playing or drinking 
a glass of wine.' You fool, you. Look around over 
your town and see the lost and ruined women, who are 
a blight on womanhood; look at the gambling hells 
that are enticing men and boys to their doom; look 
at iftie hundreds of saloons, which are floating your 
husbands and your sons to ruin. Ain't you got no 
sense, sister? 

"Sit back there and simper and say: I never could 
see any harm in dancing in my life. 'Sifter, if you're 
honest, you're weakminded. You ought to get your 
noggin examined. I never could see the harm in a 
glass of wine or beer. 'Sister, you are a good old thing, 
but you're foolish. You can't see anything.' 

"Ood pity the wife who's lost her grip on her hus- 
band. God pity the mother who *has a boy who'll get 
drunk or a girl she can't trust. 

"You never will know what your girl is worth until 
she stands on the floor to get married. Then she thinks 
she's going to get value received and you can kinder 
figure out what she's worth by what she gets. I know 



252 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

there must be many a woman who has repented 
of her bargain. Haven't some of you wished a thou- 
sand times you had lived and die'd an old maid? T 
mean some of you. You know who I mean, don't 
you? 

"I don't believe in divorces, but I can understand 
how some of you would 'be anxious to get rid of your 
husbands. Men couldn'*- do the thousands of mean 
things they -do every year in this country if it wasn't 
so. I am sorry for a woman who has married a pusil- 
lanimous rascal, and lots of you have done it. 

"And God pity the man who has married a fussing 
wife. I can understand how the poor fellow could 
sing, with overpowering conviction, the old song that 
begins: *I would not live always.' There was a fer- 
vent 'Amen' from a seat near the platform, where 
sat Kev. J. A. Smith, and Mr. Jones looking over and 
spotting the author of the response, said: 'Brother 
Smith says 'Amen.' Everybody laughed. 

"What a great force a woman is? Your daughter 
can be a load on you that will bear you to earth, or 
she can be a pair of wings, that will lift you towards 
the gates of heaven. It does look as if some children 
jump out of their cradles and start straight on the 
road to hell, but most of them get their first training 
in their homes. God pity the mother wftio thinks she 
can not run her home without a pack of cards. 

"Woman, how great is the power that is yours? If 
you will you can unlock a door that will lead to peace 
and hope and purity and happiness, and if you will 



Am> THUNDERBOLTS. 253 

you can unlock a dungeon of despair, where yon and 
your family will dwell in everlasting penitence and 
everlasting regret. 

"I fig-hit the things I think are injurious to tihe home 
and to the home influence. I 'fight the ballrooms, be- 
cause dancing is based on the contact of the sexes and 
nothing with such a foundation can teach the higher 
and sweeter and purer sentiments of the <home life. 
I'm against card parties. Pm against drinking. 

"And I want to tell you women you ought to be 
against them. You ain't mean, most of you; you're 
just silly. I happened to be sitting in a parlor once 
and I happened to get a side glimpse at a young man 
and a young woman. They were sitting looking at 
each other and he'd say nothing and she'd giggle, and 
them she'd say nothing and he'd giggle. It affected 
me just like a dose of ipecac. I moved. I had to 
move or go to the window. 

"Take one of these foolish, flippant, society girls, 
who get to bed about 1 o'clock and read weird modern 
novels until three. She won't get up until 10 in the 
morning, and when she does you can hear her calling 
'Sally.' And when Sally goes up to her room, she 
gives the girl one end of her corset string and ties 
the other to the bedpost and when she comes down to 
breakfast she 'looks just like a wasp and she'll stay like 
one, too." 

(Mr. Jones said if he was away from home and had 
received a telegram from his son saying his wife had 
given a progressive euchre party on the preceding 



254 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

evening, he would wire back: "Watch your mother 
closely until I can get home," and would start on the 
next train. 

I'd know that if the old girl had got hold of a pack 
of cards since I had seen her arid had taken to using 
them, that she had lost her mind. Some of you 
who play cards may not have lost your minds. You may 
have been born that way. Lots of folks is. 

The evangelist told of having visited the insane 
asylum of twenty states and that in almost every room 
of every one of them he had .seen a pack of cards. He 
had asked the wardens why they were there, and had 
been told that nothing on earth amused and inter- 
ested a lunatic or an idiot so much. "But I wouldn't 
put that down," he said turning to the reporters. 
"You'll make some of these folks mad." 

By homely stories of the effects the conduct of dif- 
ferent mothers may have upon their children, Mr. 
Jones pointed his exhortation to the mothers : "The 
best thing for you to do is to be just as good as you 
want your daughter to be. 

"And you wives be all you would have your hus- 
bands be and you sisters set a good example to your 
brothers. When we all do this, when we get our homes 
right, we are going to have the best world beneath the 
shining s/tars." 

When the evangelist asked those who agreed witih 
what he said and who would try to make of them- 
selves better women to rise, it seemed that every wo- 
man in the congregation was on her feet. Of course, 



AND THHNT)GEIEBO(LTS. 255 

there must have been some who did not rise, but they 
were so few and the others were so many, that they 
could not be distinguished. 



AN APPEAL FOE THE W. C. T. U. 

An appeal was made to the women who formed the 
audience at the Park Tabernacle yesterday afternoon for 
their personal assistance in the conduct of the Wo- 
man's Christian Temperance Union and the White 
Eibbon Mission, in Savannah. 

The work that is being done by these organizations 
receives the enthusiastic commendation of Mr. Jones, 
who said it was the noblest that was being done by 
any one in Savannah. The appeal was for women, who 
would be willing to help in the work, and in response 
a goodly number promised to do so. A meeting of the 
Woman's 'Christian Temperance Union is to be held at 
118 Oglethorpe Avenue, west, at 5 o'clock tomorrow 
afternoon, and those who feel interested in the work 
are invited and urged to be present. 

Eev. W. E. Mumford also talked to the audience of 
the 'Georgia Industrial Home, near [Macon, of which 
he is the founder and director. Mr. Mumford an- 
nounced that the necessary funds to buil'd the Savannah 
cottage had been secured, and asked the assistance of 
the women of Savannah in rescuing from lives of mis- 
ery and vice the little children of the wretchedly poor 
of the city. 



256 LIOHTNIJSFG FILASHEIS 



SAM JONES' 'WARNING-. TACKLES PUBLIC OF- 
FICIALS, LIQUOR DEALERS AND GAMB- 
LERS. POLICY SHOPS TO STAY SHUT. 

MAYOR, SOLICITOR AND JUDGE HANDLED WITHOUT 

GLOVES. 

Godliness profitable in all things the evangelist's 
subject. He denounced men who practice and up- 
hold evil, in vigorous language. 'Why the people in- 
dorse his utterances. Savannah is going to see bet- 
ter times, he says, when the devil's gang is ousted. 
The evangelist to close his meetings tonight. 

Before an 'audience as large a9 any that lias greeted 
him since he has been in Savannah, Rev. Sam Jones 
preached a sermon last night replete with all the quali- 
ties that have made his sermons unique, and himself 
famous. 

His text was Zech. 9 :12 : "Turn you to the strong- 
hold, ye prisoners of hope; even to-'day do I declare 
that I will render double unto iihee." 

It was a strongly religious sermon, but the evange- 
list made each of the separate heads, into which he 
divided the text, the vehicle of running comments on 
persons and things, as caustic or humorous, as the 
occasion 'demanded, as in any sermon that he has yet 
preached (here. 



A'KD THUNDERBOLTS. 257 

He began with a short address in which he an- 
nounced that the series of meetings would close to- 
night, and expressed his regret for it. He said, "It is 
with mingled feelings of sadness and gratitude that I 
look twenty-four hours ahead to the close of these meet- 
ings, and I want you all to he here tomorrow after- 
noon at four o'clock. You merchants give your clerks, 
or at least a part of them, the opportunity to come. 

"I had a marvelous service this afternoon. The 
building was full of women, and I trust good shall 
abide in this city. I had all classes and conditions, and 
ages here, and when I asked for every woman that 
thanked God for the hour, and promised flhat she would 
try to be a better woman, almost every woman stood 
up. 

"If you women would be good the men would be bet- 
ter. You can't be good, sis, and monkey with that 
wine; you can't be pious and have a waxed floor for 
dancing in your house; and just think, if you can, of 
that old sister over there being pious with a deck of 
cards. It's like a sober fellow off drunk and got the jug 
with him. You women must be better if you do live 
in Savannah, or if your hushand does have $500,000, 
or if you do live on Bull Street. The millionaire's 
wife can go to hell like a shot out of a cannon if she 
don't live right, just like you poor folks. No, sir, it 
isn't a question of how much you've got/' 

The evangelist again impressed upon his audience 
that not only will tonight be the last of the meetings, 
but that the services will begin earlier than usual, the 



258 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

song service at 7 :30 o'clock, and the preaching at 8. 
THien he repeated the text : "This text," he said, "comes 
to us in the form of an exhortation; it is a call from 
God for sinners to turn from their evil ways, and not 
alone that, but also to seek the stronghold where can 
be found refuge and help. 

"Now my Bible tells me that godliness is profitable 
in all things. I believe it pays to do right, and that 
it's bankruptcy to do wrong. The devil may seem to 
prosper for a season, but it's all seeming. Do you 
know if the hog that the farmer is fattening knew 
what die was being fattened for he'd never eat another 
grain of corn. As soon as he's fat enough to kill that 
ends his eating. 'Well, the devil's got a lot of fat- 
tening hogs in this town, and as soon as they are fat 
enough he'll kill them for hell. There are the rich 
and the 'big, and the sinners. Don't you know I talk 
tine truth? When God Almighty runs his willapus 
wallapus on things I tell you they flatten out mightily. 
I tell you I believe godliness pays." 

After relating the story of a man Who quit a good 
position rather than work on Sunday, but who after- 
ward secured another position even better than the one 
that he had thrown up, he said, "Savannah's got some 
of the best men God ever made and some of the best 
women that ever walked the continent, but the trouble 
is you're out of fashion, and too few and scattering. 
What you need in this town among the average Meth- 
odists, tand Presbyterians, and Baptists is conviction. 

"You elect a great, big, old liquor dealer Mayor of 



AND THUKBEEiiiOLXS. 259 

this town because he's got money, and there are men 
in this town that hold offices that if you take away 
their money, couldn't he dog-pelters, and you know it. 

"The wicked flourish like the green bay tree, but, 
my God ! look at the poor people of this town. I tell 
you the devil's got a lot of big fattening hogs in his 
pen and you razor-backs can't even get a few acorns. 

"There's only one kind of dollar that is fit to put 
in your pocket, or the bank or into real estate, and 
that's the kind that you can look ( God in the face 
and say 'that's no dirty shilling.' And think of your 
county officials fattening on the gamblers in this town! 
Ain't iihat — why, good Lord! the evangelist continued, 
breaking out in his indignation, 'I'd rather have mine 
from highway robbery than put such money as that in 
my pocket.' 

"Now let me say right here, if these policy shops 
open Monday I want all you people and preachers 
to call an indignation meeting and demand that they 
be run out of town or that your perjured officials 
resign office. This statement was greeted with cheers, 
and when Mr. Jones asked all in favor of such action 
to stand uip, the whole house rose as a body. 'Get 
up, Mr. Reporter,' said Mr. Jones, 'look out for your- 
self and see.' 

"Yes," continued Mr. Jones, "I 'believe in the maxim, 
'Yox populi, vox Dei.' The voice of the people is the 
voice of God. And now listen if you people sit quietly 
down and let these people open up their damnable dens 
again, I say you ought to be robbed and the city 



260 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

damned. 'The devil's fattening hogs! Ain't that a 
good name for 'em, Bascom.' he asked, quizzically, 
turning to Kev. Bascom Anthony. 

"Now hear me! 'Even to-day I declare that I will 
render double unto thee.' Do you know Hhat I used 
to hear preachers say that you could read it in the 
Bible, that if a man forsook home and friends and 
everything to follow the Lord, he'd have a hundred- 
fold more than before, and I used to think there must 
be some mistake about it; but tonight I tell you I be- 
lieve it as* honestly as I believe anything in the uni- 
verse. I know it because twenty-nine years ago I had 
wrecked my life in this world, and the one to come 
before I became converted and started out on the new 
life. 

"I left one home in Oartersville and I've found 1,000 
better ones, in every State in the Union. I felt one 
mother, kind and good, and 'God has given me thou- 
sands of them in every State of the Union. And, 
listen! God don't come to Savannah to bankrupt peo- 
ple. When I began preaching I had a wife, a child, a 
bob-tailed pony and $8; tihat was my stock in trade; 
and for .six years I preached for less than $200 and 
worked a farm to pay my honest debts, and God stood 
by me until I developed manhood. And my enemies 
tried to drive me out, and they tried to slander me 
out, next to natter me out, and lastly to buy me out, 
and they offered me thousands of dollars, but boys v 
hear me, I'm as true to God tonight as I ever was." 
This statement wa.s greeted with applause, and fer- 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 261 

vent "Aniens" could be heard from all parts of the au- 
dience. Then Mr. Jones continued, "And I never knew 
a man that stood firm and true to God and his con- 
victions that didn't come out all right." 

The evangelist administered a hot roast to the city 
officials who have come under his displeasure. "You 
can be Mayor of this town/' he .said, "With its whole- 
sale liquor dealers, its gambling houses, and its saloons, 
or you can be the solicitor general and let the gamb- 
lers graze around until you're ready and then bring 
them up and milk them. You can do this and get rich 
in twelve months, but I don't want that kind of money, 
and I think it would be but an act of decency and 
downright honesty for your Mayor to close out his 
liquor department or resign, for to sell liquor and then 
to close the saloons is too much like playing the spider 
and saying to the saloonkeeper 'won't you come into 
my parlor/ 

"And, listen to me again: You know that a word 
from the Mayor to the policeman would close up the 
saloons, and the gambling places and other dens, and 
if I was a preacher in this town I''d make him run 
it right or I'd back him up to a stump and cut bis 
tail off here." Mr. Jones made a significant gesture 
back of his ears and the crowd cheered and laughed. 

"Bascom!" and Mr. Jones turned to Mr. Anthony, 
"'we're going to back you up with a crowd, old fellow, 
that will ena'ble you to do something." 

Mr. Jones told of some of the stories of misery and 
anguish that had been brought to his notice since he 



262 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

had been in Savannah, and which, he said, were the 
result of liquor and the other evils he denounced. Then 
he went hack at the Mayor. 

"I've got nothing against the Mayor as a citizen 
and a gentleman/' he said, "he may he the nicest man 
in town, hut he's no more fit to he Mayor than a pig 
is to preside over angels. 'Why 'don't you say 'Amen' 
to that, Bascom," he said, addressing Mr. Anthony, 
whose reply was lost in the shout of laughter tihat went 
up from all over the house. 

"This reminds me of a Dutchman who sat in the back 
of a hall," said Mr. Jones. "No, I don't mean the 
Thunderbolt chap. This fellow heard people using 
'Amen,' and asked what it meant. It was explained to 
him and *he continued to listen to the speaker until a 
sentiment was expressed that he wanted to indorse, but 
in his excitement he forgot 'amen,' but managed to get 
out 'shust der same town here.' That's what we want 
in this crowd. 

"Now, listen to me! The devil's got fattening hogs 
in this town, hut don't you he led astray, for judg- 
ment is coming to them, and among the lowest in hell 
are the people tfhat were richest and that wore purple 
and fine linen here. 

"And, listen to me again ! Whenever you see the 
devil's crowd flourishing you may he sure the people 
are being hurt. Do right; right not only is might, 
but will tpay in the end. 

''We're going to see better times in this town. The 
devil's gang's not going to make so much money, and 



ANT) THTJMDBRBOI/TS. 263 

the wives and children of this town are going to he 
'better fed and going to get better clothes. And now, 
if I can divert money from tftiese dens and help the 
wives and children of this town, am I an enemy to 
society, and ought I be drummed out of society? 

He answered this question for himself by saying 
laconically, "Huh ! drum nothing. I told you when I 
came to this town that I have the drums and I'm going 
to keep 'em; I won't let them out; I always keep pos- 
session of the drums. 

"I want every good thing in this town to prosper 
and I want to bankrupt every bad thing, and I want 
it to be done by the 25tih of December. 

*You colored people? These dens have made thou- 
sands of dollars from you and you'll be a fool if you 
go back to the policy and the saloon. Not only will 
you be a rascal and a sinner, but you'll be a fool, you 
black devil, you." "Praise God for dat," was the 
fervent ejaculation that was heard from the negro sec- 
tion, high above the laughter of the rest. Mr. Jones 
continued, "I pray God you colored people may put 
to blush your past lives, and that you'll get a crown 
of glory. You'll do it if you live right. If you don't, 
you'll be in hell a frying before your body gets cold." 
"That's right! You're always right!" came a shrill 
voice again from the negro section. 

Mr. Jones related the story of a young man who had 
been hampered in his religious life 'because forced to 
work for a grocery house that dealt in whiskey. "We'll 
use sand at my house," said Mr. Jones, "before we'd 



264 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

buy from a place that sells liquor. You've got decent 
grocers here," he continued, addressing the crowd, 
"and you ougfht to walk five miles for things rather 
than buy them from cattle that sell liquor. Now, "he 
said, some of you sisters down there will say, 'Why, 
Brother Jones, I don't see no harm in that.' — ( I told 
you this evening you ain't got no sense; that you're 
mighty near an idiot.' " 

'Referring again to the liquor business the evange- 
list isaid, "There's money in it — catch on now ! And 
there is, but I'd rather steal every bite I got to eat 
and every tfhread of clothes I wear before I'd sell my 
neighbor the liquid damnation. Do you know," he 
said, in a confidential tone, "I've as much respect for a 
chaingang nigger as I have for distillers, and whole- 
sale liquor dealers." The crowd again laughed and 
applauded, which drew from Mr. Jones, "better be 
careful, I may make you indorse what I've -said." 

"A man said to me the other day, 'Jones, you can 
get a crowd to indorse anything.' 'Well, try it your- 
self if you want to/ I said. They'll indorse anything 
I say 'cause they'll indorse iihe truth, and I don't say 
anything but the truth. 

"Listen again ! a nigger goes to the chaingang be- 
cause he stole .something or he'd got in a fight and 
bruised the face of another nigger but the wholesale 
liquor dealer every day does more damage by the stuff 
that he sends broadcast in the land, causing men to 
sftioot their wives and ill-treat their children and a hun- 
dred other things, Which is the nicer job — talk out? 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 265 

"Bascom," said the evangelist, and a smile broad- 
ened on his face, "hadn't you rather whip a nigger and 
get on the gang than to do all these other things? 

"If I should stand at my window in the hotel and 
s<hoot out in the street every day and kill a man and a 
woman and children, they'd done hang me. I might 
say, too, I didn't- mean it, 'but 'Little Billie' would 
have me in his wagon going a mile a minute. Weigh 
a man by what he's done. I say from the depth of my 
soul that in the measure of harm to society the lowest 
nigger on the chaingang is a better citizen and doing 
the country less <harm than any liquor dealer in the 
world." 

As soon as the cheers that followed this remark had 
subsided so that the preacher could make himself 
heard, he turned to the platform with "Savannah 
never had this sort of preaching before did slhe, Bas- 
com?" Then he turned to the congregation. "And 
it's doing the work, too." 

The evangelist compared himself to the mule with 
the cannon on its back, "You can't tell which way the 
mule's going to turn or what'll be hit," he said, "but 
there's going to be a dead dog around somewhere. 

"Have I abused anything good?" he asked, "have I 
abused Sam Adams? I only said that he didn't have 
no sense of humor, and Lord, that's no sin. No, sir. 
iGod bless Sam Adams, there ain't money enough to 
buy him nor bullets enough to scare him. The only 
trouble is, he's mostly in a pen by himself." 

The evangelist referred to the probable amount that 



266 LIGHTNING PLASHES 

a public official got out of the gamblers, and said, "But 
if nothing else happens in this town I hope Judge Fal- 
ligiant will quit playing gap boy for said official. 
He's a good man, Judge Falligant is, a big hearted and 
generous man, and I don't impugn a single motive 
in hie life, but I want him to quit playing gap boy. 
The idea of his driving the cows into the pen and as 
soon as they are milked turning them out again. 

'"I wish you people in Savannah would put God Al- 
mighty to the test. There's where you break down ; you 
stand up tonight and you clap your hands at what I 
say, but if you ain't registered before next election 
you need killing. And in the next election if any 
bull-necked rascal tries to buy your vote give him one 
in the jaw that will give the dentist a job from the 
front of his mouth to the back. The blackest and low- 
est nigger in Savannah is a gentleman, a scholar and a 
Christian compared to the white man ilhat'll sell his 
vote. 

"If I'd a come here and run a plain religious meet- 
ing, I could have had 5,000 conversions, but what's the 
use of bringing souls to the kingdom of God and then 
leaving them in an atmosphere they can't live in? 

"Kun this town for twelve months as it ought to 
be run, and then I'll come back and we'll have a reli- 
gious meeting every night, and maybe we can get 
'Little Billie' in his wagon and bring him up. 

"There are some fellows that cuss Sam Jones, but 
usually it's the ones that don't come to hear him. 
They're the fellows that don't want to hear him, the 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 267 

cussin' fellows, and the sis that wears the decollete. 
But let me tell you, sis, if you heard tftie remarks that 
the gang at the frolic makes about you the next time 
you went you'd wear the dress a little higher up. 

"You've heard the story of the country boy that 
went to .a dance, where they wore the modern decollete. 
When he came out of the hall lie said to his friend, 
'Well ! I ain't seed such a sight since I was weaned.' 
There were cheers and laughter at this. 'Get insulted 
if you want to,' said the evangelist, *but what is worse, 
for me to tell you about it or for you to be immodest.' 

"Brother Reporter," he said, addressing the repre- 
sentative of the Morning News, "now you say anybody 
blushes, 'cause I've looked all over this crowd and the 
only thing I see uncommon in color is in that corner," 
and he waved his hand toward the negroes, which 
caused another burst of merriment. 

Again referring to the text, he impressed upon his 
hearers the promise, "I will render double unto thee," 
and then said, "I like for my converts to be prosperous. 
Why, I expect to come back to Savannah some day and 
find some of you poor devils living on Bull Street. 

"I've preached long enough now, but I'm going to 
get through if it takes till midnight, so if any of you 
want to go, I won't say a word. I know some people 
thought before I got here that anybody that started 
out of one of my meetings would hear Sam Jones say 
something 'bout going to start for hell — and who 
started that fool lie on me anyway ? I'm always glad to 



268 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

see a man go out of my meetings when he's got all 
he can tote." 

Again taking up his text, the speaker said that there 
•are three classes of prisoners with hope, and three classes 
of prisoners without hope, and each of which he dis- 
cussed at length. After impressing the necessity of 
doing what you should do, now, he said, "I've preached 
in all kinds of places, in streets, churches, tabernacles 
and otiher places, but there's one place that I never 
have reached and never expect to preach in, and that's 
a cemetery among the dead. What you do, you've got 
to do between now and death. You'll never find in the 
Bible a verse that offers the last hope to the man that 
dies impenitent. You may go round getting 'em to 
pray you out after you're dead, but you are just mon- 
keying. You may pray to get your husband out, sister, 
but your husband's down there, just the same. There 
are no tickets reading back <his way. They all read 
that way. There's an impassable gulf — man's last 
chance comes before he takes his last breath." 

The sermon was closed with a startling picture in 
which Mr. Jones compared the evils of drink, of blas- 
phemy and worldliness each to a horse that, though it 
might appear at 'first to be gentle and under control, 
mig<ht at the last get the bit between its teeth and 
take its rider to damnation. 

"Get down while it's time," he warned, and many 
took advantage of the invitation, and asked for the 
prayers of the ministers and congregation, not only for 
themselves, but also for their friends and relatives. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 269 

Before the sermon Eev. Bascom Anthony explained 
the arrangement under which Mr. Jones had come to 
Savannah. He toid the congregation that the collec- 
tions that had been taken had barely covered the ex- 
penses of the meetings, leaving a bare $100 over, and 
that not only would the collection baskets be passed, 
but those who wished to do so could subscribe something 
on books that would be passed through the audience. 
The response to this invitation was quite liberal. Tt 
is understood that quite a handsome collection is being 
made among business men, and that already this fund 
has grown up into the hundreds. 



270 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



SAM JONES TOUCHES UP EVIL IN HIS 
USUAL STYLE. 

CLIMAX REACHED. 

The discourse of Eev. Sam Jones at the tabernacle 
yesterday afternoon was in no manner sensational, and 
was listened to by about 3,000 persons, the majority 
of whom were women. The audience was an impas- 
sive one, and the scenes that have marked the other 
meetings were not enacted. There were no really pa- 
thetic stories to touch the hearts of his listeners, and 
although the evangelist caused them to smile on several 
occasions, and at one time to laugh, he did not appeal 
to or touch the tender chords that heretofore he has 
successfully reached for and sounded. 

'There were no frills and ruffles on what Mr. Jones 
had to say, and he expressed himself in his own pecu- 
liar and inimitable way. It was a plain, religious 
address, in wfhich no high-sounding expressions were 
used, and still in which nothing was said which could 
have offended the most fastidious. His talk is better 
described by saying that it was midway between what 
is called "a straight out gospel sermon,, and "a char- 
acteristic Jones sermon." As has been the rule through- 
out the meetings at the tabernacle, Eev. Bascom An- 
thony was ^humorously jabbed by the evangelist several 
times, but no one seemed to enjoy the jocular refer- 
ences more than the pastor of Trinity himself. 

At the close of the services Mr. Jones, as usual, 



AOT) THIMDEEBO'LTS. 271 

requested all of those who had experienced a change 
of heart, who had not yet expressed themselves, to come 
forward and grasp his hand. He wanted those who 
were almost persuaded to boldly do the proper thing 
and renounce their wicked ways. He wanted them to 
promise to be a God-fearing people, and in his own 
language to "quit their meanness." Two songs were 
sung, but the call was only answered by children. This 
is not intended as a reflection on the work of the 
evangelist at the meeting, but was probably due to the 
fact that with but one or two exceptions his listeners 
had at other services made the 'promise asked of them 
in the name of God. At every meeting- they nocked 
to the platform, and the time had to come when there 
were no more sinners to repent. The climax was reach- 
ed in the afternoon meeting. 

Mr. Jones began by saying that he would use two 
texts for Oris sermon: "And Agrippa answered Paul 
and said, 'Almost thou persuadeth me to be a Chris- 
tian." "Well done thou good and faithful servant, en- 
ter thou into the joys of thy Lord/ " Mr. Jones said 
there are large numbers in both classes in 'Savannah. 
"It is sad to look upon those who are almost per- 
suaded to become Christians, but who are faltering 
on the very threshold of a brighter and finer life." 
He spoke of those who are not far from the kingdom 
of 'God and recalled that "He who dallies is a dastard 
and he who doubts is damned." The evangelist called 
upon his hearers to take a stand and to do the right 
and quit the wrong. 



272 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

"Some of you people just try to see how close you 
can get to the gates of (heaven without going in. Some 
of you see how close you can get to hell without going 
in. Get religion like you meant it. So many slow 
folks are in this town. This is a poke-easy atmosphere 
and altitude. The bicycles are the only things that 
have got you going fast in this town. If I were going 
to be hung, I would want it to go on faster than you 
people are moving. I don't want nothing slow. Some 
of these old brethren pray and preach until I would 
feel like saying, 'Wake me up when that thing gets 
through.' There ain't no long prayers in the Bible. 
I eat fast and believe in gitting up and gitting. Git 
a move on you, people. Bonaventure is a good enough 
place to rest when the time comes. The healthiest 
children in Georgia never had a shoe on, and I ain't 
never observed any rules of health. You just tie up 
your arm and save it, and in a little while you can't 
use it. Get out and move, and stop taking care of 
your health. 

"Brother Bascom, there, he started to take care of 
his 'beauty. Now just look at him. The violent take 
the kingdom of heaven by force. Young man, quit your 
sinning. Get religion and go at it in a hurry. There 
ain't no slowness in the constitution and by-laws, 
neither. I backslide when it comes to long prayers. 
I ain't studying what he's praying 'bout, but when he's 
gwine to quit. It's all right for him to get on his knees 
or in his closet and pray all night; but don't make 
people blackslide by praying so long in meeting. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 273 

"These 'political heelers and henchmen made a door- 
to-door canvass from Christmas to Christmas, to see if 
you are registered and to buy votes. 'T ain't no won- 
der this crowd stays in office. Why don't you Chris- 
tians work like that? Some folks seem 'fraid this 
good work ain't a-going to last. Listen! i Sam Jones 
ain't 'fraid 'tain't going to hold out. The Methodists 
believe in falling from grace, but I'm a going to stand. 
Bascom, over there, he preaches on Sunday about it, 
and his congregation does it during the week. 

"There ain't much difference between the Presby- 
terians and Methodists nohow. The Methodists know 
they got religion, but they powerful 'fraid they going 
to lose it. The Presbyterians know they can't lose it, 
but they 'fraid tftiey ain't got it. 

"A lady came to me at the hotel this morning and 
said, ''Brother Jones, before you come here I never 
heard in my life that it was wrong to play cards and 
dance. I never heard a preacher in Savannah say so. 
Preachers told me it was left to the conscience of the 
people. Now, ain't that nice talk on you preachers. 
That wouldn't have surprised me if I <had heard it in 
Hong Kong. 

"'Tain't in this crowd," came from Bev. Bascom Ar»- 
thony, upon whom Mr. Jones had been looking hard. 

"Is you gwine to leave it to your conscience whether 
to lie, or steal, or cuss or dance? Conscience is like 
the tar bucket on the tail end of the wagon; it's the 
last thing. It condemns or praises what has already 
been done. It don't tell you what to do. 



274 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

'Toil quit your running around with them little 
preachers. If you don't watch out they'll get you in 
hell. I don't mean the crowd of preachers on this plat- 
form. Didn't you folks have to jerk one of 'em up for 
pleaching something that wasn't in the Bible? He was 
one of the most leadenest pastors in town, too. Brother 
Jordan, what was that you told me 'bout that." The 
preachers on the platform stated that the rector in 
question is not a member of the Ministerial Associa- 
tion. 

"A man said this morning: 'Jones, you've cut the 
saloon trade one-half every day you've been here.' Now 
let's see what that is. 'Some of you preachers tell me. 
You Bascom. Let's see, 250 -saloons at $20.00 a day, 
and one-half 'o that is $2,500 a day since I been here. 
But you people are too e-co-nim-i-cal. T(he stingy man 
ain't got no religion, <an' when he talks it's just some- 
thing that he eat. I ain't got no respect for a narrow, 
contracted 'Christian. The fellow with the big ears is 
generous, and the fellow with the little ones is stingy. 

"You preachers get some fertilizer and stir it up 
around the ears of those in your congregation. Bas- 
com, you just get a whole ton. You hear 'em say 'I 
ain't got so much and Fs gwine f to keep the little bit 
that I worked so hard for.' You good women will pay 
more for a bonnet on Easter than you give to the church 
for a year. Now, ain't that nice? You can be a first- 
class Christian here in Savannah without a tearing 
your clothes. 'Tain't no rush for first place. 

"Get in the church. It don't matter how you get in. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 275 

You just get in and if you can swim When you get in, 
bud, well that is the rub. See the pint? Just go right 
in and say Fll do it, live or die, sink or swim. Just 
go right in and then you've done done it, you goose 
you." 

Mr. Jones told of a destitute family that had been 
called to his attention by Rev. Mr. Nisbet. An aged 
man with a blind wife and an afflicted child. The 
evangelist said that the case which he was mentioning 
is one in whidh there is no fraud and that Mr. Nes- 
bit would receive any contributions intended for the 
suffering people. A substantial sum was realized, prob- 
ably more than the amount taken in the collection be- 
fore the service. 



276 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



THE MEETING OVER. SAM JONES PREACHED 
HIS FINAL SERMON TO 12,000 PEOPLE 

LAW AND ORDER LEAGUE STARTED BY THE MINISTERS 
AND JOINED DY HUNDREDS. 

How it will do its work. Executive committee of 
twenty-five to bear the brunt of the fighting. The 
evangelist thanked those who had helped him dur- 
ing his 'services here and said he carried away 
nothing hut kindly thoughts of Savannah. Preach- 
ed a sermon almost without slang. Left for Car- 
ters ville last night. 

The series of evangelical services that have been in 
progress in Savannah for the past eighteen days have 
been marked by many remarkable happenings and 
formed the background of many remarkable scenes. 
The scene witnessed at the tabernacle -last night sur- 
passed in impre&siveness anything that had preceded it 
It was a great gathering, remarkable from every stand- 
point. In the tabernacle every available 'foot of space 
held its interested occupant. Men, women and chil- 
dren were crowded close together until the auditorium 
looked one vast sea of heads and faces. Along the 
aisles and in any spot not filled by the benches, the 
prudent ones of the audience placed the chairs they 
had brought with them to the services in order to as- 
sure their obtaining seats. For twenty feet outside 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 277 

the walls of the building there was a dense mass of 
people, maintaining perfect order, preserving perfect 
quiet, listening and straining their ears to catch every 
word that fell from the lips of the remarkable man 
they had come to hear. 

There were 11,000 or 12,000 persons in the audience, 
comprising white and black, rich and poor, the wise 
and the otherwise, as Dr. Jordan denominated them. 
Every class of Savannah people was represented and 
every shade of religious or political opinion. The ser- 
mon addressed to that vast multitude must have had 
many differing effects upon its members, but in one 
respect every listener was like every other, he heard 
in perfect quiet, or broke the stillness only with ap- 
plause or laughter. 

'The usual preliminary services were through with 
rather hurriedly. Dr. Jordan urging very eloquently 
and forcibly upon the congregation to manifest by the 
size of this contribution their appreciation of the good 
that had come to Savannah. Some few minutes after 
8 o'clock, Mr. Jones began to speak. The collection 
was still in progress at that time. 

"I don't see any reason/ 5 said the evangelist, "why 
we can't do two things at the same time. In Texas 
tfhey can do three — whittle, whistle and rest. 

"I could not leave this town without saying a word 
for the Salvation Army. I have traveled in forty 
States of this country, and everywhere I have seen the 
good that is being done by this devoted band. You 
think you can sit up and say they are nothing but a 



278 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

crowd of hoodlums, but I tell you they are doing 
Christly work in rescuing the perishing and comfort- 
ing the dying." 

Mr. Jones told a story of a girl, a iSalvation Army 
officer, whom he had heard speak in the streets of a 
Northern city. She had recounted iftie experience 
through which she had recently passed in Dubuque, 
where she had been arrested for leading the singing 
on the public streets and conducting the services in 
which the Salvation Army was there engaged. She had 
been placed in jail and there she had stayed for thircy 
days. 

"In the jail there were forty other prisoners, forty 
dirty, miserable wretches, steeped in sin and iniquity 
and debauchery and seemingly lost to hope. She had 
sung with these creatures and had prayed with them, 
and when the moment of her release came she had won 
the hearts of them all and converted them all to Christ 
and better life. She stood there before me and told 
this story to iihe audience that gathered around and 
said she was glad to bear any suffering for the sake 
of the Christ. And I said to myself: 'Sam Jones, 
there's more religion in that girl's little finger, than 
there is in your whole body.' Help the Salvation Army, 
you men of means and influence in Savannah, and when 
you get a chance give them a quarter or half a dollar 
instead of a kick. 

"And I want to say something for ttie Y. M. C. A. 
The speaker read some statistics of the work of the 
association in Savannah and then continued : 



=2 



AiND THSUNIDEIRIBOIJTS. 279 

^Whenever anything I think is good for boys is 
started in my town, I tell you I'm going to get in. 
It don't matter so much what we leave him ; he'll make 
a living, anyhow. And he, if he's just a welldressed 
foolish dude, it don't much matter wfoat you leave 
him, anyhow, because it's just going to help him on 
his way to perdition. 

"Reminds me of a feller who came up to another and 
told him that old Bill Johnson had just died and iet't 
a million dollars to the saloons. 

"S'ho enough? said the other fellow, a little in- 
credulous. 

"Well, he left it to them indirectly, said the first. 
'He gave it to his sons and his son-in-law and they 
can be trusted to give it to the saloons.' You see the 
pint, don't you? 

"Maybe some of you out there'll say, 'But my boy;i 
are all girls.' Well, you got just as much interest in 
raising a good crop of boys in this town as anybody 
else. Your girls are going to marry some of these days, 
bud. It's bad enough to stand your own boy's mean- 
ness, but when you got to put up with and for some- 
body else's, why that's the worst ever. 

"You help the Y. M. C. A. along. The only work 
it can do is to help men to lead 1 better and cleaner 
lives and to raise up in the city boys to whom you can 
leave your money without fear that you are leaving 
it indirectly to the saloons. Put up a Y. M. C. A. 
building that will be a credit to your town and you 
men that can afford it, give liberally to its erection. 



280 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

You young men who have professed repentance and con- 
version since these meetings began, you join the associa- 
tion and take a part in its work." 

Rev. W. A. Nisbet, president of the Ministerial As- 
sociation, advanced at this stage to the front of the 
platform and read the following address to the con- 
gregation and the people of Savannah: 

We, the ministers whose names are affixed, have 
realized for a long while that the moral and spiritual 
condition of Savannah has been far below that which 
.should obtain in a city that stands for God and right- 
eousness. 

"We believe that great and lasting good has been 
accomplished by the meetings held for the last few days 
in Savannah by the Rev. Sam P. Jones and the Rev. 
George R. Stuart. 

"We furthermore here and now pledge ourselves to do 
all in our power to accomplish the enforcement of +he 
State, city and county law's in Savannah and Chatham 
County, and especially do we propose to see that the 
barrooms are closed on Sunday, the gambling of all 
kinds is suppressed at all times and places and that 
vote-buying no more disgraces our elections. 

"Realizing that this task will be impossible for us 
unless sustained by the people of this city and count), 
we therefore call upon every Godr fearing and law- 
loving citizen to stand by us in this movement, which 
we 'believe to mean the purification of our city and 
county, the salvation of our homes and the glory of 
our God." 



AM) THmTOEOEUBOLTS. 281 

The address is signed by Eev. W. A. Nisbet, Rev. John 
D. Jordan, Rev. Ed. F. Oook, Rev. W. F. Mc Corkel, 
Rev. D. S. Edenfield, Rev. Bascom Anthony, Rev. J. 
A. Smith and Rev. Osgood F. Cook. 

The reading was followed by a great roar of applause. 
The women of the congregation clapped their hands 
with every appearance of enthusiasm and the men 
cheered. Mr. Jones was immediately upon his feet. 

"The paper that has just been read to you by Brother 
Nisbet," he said, "perhaps means more than that num- 
ber of words ever before written or uttered in Savannah 
since the incorporation of the city. These revival meet- 
ings are like a great big bon-fire, burning brightly 
somewhere way down town, where everybody goes and 
gets warm. I tell you, brother, it's going to do you 
mighty little good unless you pick up a burning brand 
and start a fire on your own hearthstone. The feller 
that ain't got any fire but what he gets out here it 
going to freeze, bud. 

"I want you all to endorse what this paper which has 
been read says, and I'm going to ask you to swear to 
what you say, you'll do. Now don't you get up unless 
you mean just what you say, and are going to do what 
you mean to do. But every person in thie congrega- 
tion, every man, woman and dhild, whose convictions 
of good government are voiced in this address. I want 
to see stand up and say : 'I solemnly affirm before God 
and this community that I'll stand by these pastors 
in this fight for good government; I solemnly affirm 
I'll stand with them against every evil that blights 



282 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

and ruins this community.' Let everybody who'll say 
this, rise." 

Apparently nine-tenths of the congregation sprang to 
their feet in answer to this appeal. Here and there 
some persons still sat, but they were few in number, 
and in the great mass of those who did stand, endorse 
and promise, could not be seen from the platform. "Isn't 
that a grand sight," said the evangelist. "That means 
business, and bud, if you don't stick to what you have 
said, it means that you are the biggest liar on earth." 

"Now sit down a minute. One great trouble with 
the enforcement of law in this county is that you have 
but a single prosecuting officer for the Superior and 
City Courts. So far as I know this isn't true of any 
other city in 'Georgia. 

"Another thing. They have abolished the grand 
jury of the City Court, so that indictments can only 
be brought in the Superior Court and prosecutions in 
the other can originate only with the solicitor general. 
It's wrong. If you will you can get your representa- 
tives in the Legislature to have a law passed which will 
restore the grand jury of the City Court and empower 
the Governor to appoint some faithful and competent 
lawyer to prosecute for the people in that tribunal. 
Get the thing divided and little Billie won't be the 
bull of the whole cow pen. 

"I want all those who are opposed to the present 
state of affairs in the City Court and who want a change 
to stand up." Most of the audience stood. "Sit 
down, please. Now all who are opposed to the sugges- 



AND THUNDKRIBOUTS. 283 

tions I have made, stand up." Nobody stood. "Carried, 
unanimously," said the evangelist, ruling with en- 
thusiasm. '"Not a single dissenting voice in the whole 
audience. 

"And it's time there was a change. Look at the way 
they run things now in the City Court. Why when 
they want to milk a gambler they don't even drive him 
into the pen. The rascal don't have to go to court, 
but he sends his little lawyer to find out what's the 
trouble and settle the amount of the claim. Yes, sir; 
they'll milk a cow when it ain't in the pen; just go 
around and milk 'em all over the woods. 

"I tell you if I lived in Savannah I'd carry the of- 
ficials of some of your courts up for impeachment. 
Ain't it a farce? Ain't it a travesty on justice that 
things like these can be? 

"You good preachers have started out on a hard 
fight and I 'pray 'God to stiffen your backbone, for you 
are going to need it. Once I was stricken by a terrible 
disease that took all the backbone out of me, and I know 
what it is to be without one. Then I couldn't have 
resented anything. But I've got mine back and if any- 
body thinks I won't fight just let him knock the chip 
off my shoulder. I'll call him in a minute." 

At the instance of Mr. Jones the ministers on the 
platform distributed to the ushers cards, bearing the 
following words: "I hereby agree to become a member 
of the league for the enforcement of law in Savannah 
and Chatham county," with blank for the name and ad- 
dress of the signer. 



284 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

"If the preachers are to accomplish anything in the 
stand they have taken," said the evangelist, "you men 
of Savannah must stand up to them. These cards we 
ask you to sign, as an assurance of your sympathy and 
your support. We are not going to publish your names 
and you are not to be known in the matter at all. 
We are going to have an executive committee of twenty- 
five and we just want to be able to call on you when 
we need you. You are to be the home guard and the 
twenty^five out in front are going to do the fighting. 

"It's to be a sort of underground system. We want 
to start about lihree hundred feet underground from the 
point at which we are aiming and when we get under 
the place we are going to blow it up with dynamite. 

"And I want to tell you another thing. It' s the im- 
perative duty of every good citizen in this county to 
register, so that when election times comes you'll carry 
some weight. Get registered two or three or six months 
ahead of time; don't wait until a day or two before 
the election, when you will find the registration books 
surrounded by a jostling crowd of bums and 'heelers. 

"Eegister, my friends. Put yourselves in the place 
that when the time comes you can drive a nail in the 
coffin in which the gang that rules Savannah now is 
going to be buried. 

"A man told me to-day somebody had told him that 
Sam Jones had told one lie since he'd been in Savannah, 
anyhow. He said I'd said I'd stay in Savannah until 
the police were released from their quarters at night 
and given liberty to attend these meetings if they 



AND THUKDEHBOLTS. 285 

wanted to. I never said any such thing. I said if 
they didn't tarn those men loose every man who was 
in office now who was concerned in holding them was 
filling the very last office he ever would hold in this 
town, and you wait and see if I wan't a prophet. 

"I speak tonight to somewhere in the neighborhood 
of 12,000 people. For twenty-five years now I have 
been interested in the conduct of these meetings, and in 
all my experience I don't remember one which has 
been more helpful or more successful. 

"I want to voice my gratitude to those who have 
helped me and my co-workers here. I want to thank 
these brave preachers for their noble work. They have 
labored incessantly and untiringly. I want to thank 
the choir, which has been faithful throughout and as 
good a choir as I've ever had. I want to thank Ludden 
and Bates for the musical instruments we have used 
in this tabernacle. 

"I want to give my unqualified thanks to the news- 
papers of this city, the Morning News and the Evening 
Press, which have helped us in every way and done 
nothing but help us, I want to thank their reporters 
and to say that in all my experience a more respect- 
ful, kindly and decent set of reporters I've never met. 

"I want to thank the congregation who have attended 
these services and the ushers, who have always been at 
their posts. And I could not express thanks to any- 
one without remembering the two brave policemen, who 
have kept order around this tabernacle while the serv- 
ices were in progress. If they are as faithful in every- 



286 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

thing as they have been in the discharge of this duty, 
there will come a time when they will receive that glad 
welcome; 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant; 
enter thou into the joys of thy Lord.' " 

I want to thank the aldermen for their silence and 
the Mayor that he has said a few things; I want to 
thank Little Billie that he's been out of town while I 
was here. 

"I leave Savannah with nothing but kindness in my 
heart for your good people and your beautiful city. 
After I leave I'll never utter a harsh word or a single 
criticism of Savannah. All that I've said, I've said 
to your face. Now, are you going to be as much gentle- 
men as I profess myself to be, and say nothing, aftel 
I have turned my back, you have not said while I 
looked you in the face? I've nothing but love for Sa- 
vannah. Your people have treated me with kindness 
and every courtesy and you are the best people on the 
face of the earth, barring your meanness." 

All this was preliminary to the sermon, which Mr. 
Jones preached from Eevelation xxii :17 : ""And the 
Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that 
heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst come. 
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
freely." 

During all the talking he had done in the earlier 
part of the evening the evangelist had indulged him- 
self freely in the colloquialisms and slang and char- 
acteristic turns of speech and expression to which his 
audiences have grown accustomed and grown to like. 



AND THUNDERBOLTS. 287 

When lie started on his sermon all this was abandoned. 
Instead there was a flow of beautiful imagery and ten- 
der word pictures of the universality and the sweetness 
of the Divine love for man, manifested in the Divine 
invitation, "And wnosoever will, let him take the water 
of life freely ." 

The text was from the last chapter of the last book 
of the Bible — almost from the last verse. It was 
the last message God has given to the world and it held 
a wealth of tenderest meaning. The Spirit of the 
triune God, the church, which is the bride of God, both 
unite in the invitation to partake of His mercy. It 
goes out to him that hears and him that is athirst and 
it goes, sweetest thought of all, to whomsoever will. 

Once or twice during the short discourses he delivered 
Mr. Jones relapsed into Iris own quaint methods of 
speech, but for the rest his style was that of the cul- 
tured and edrucated minister of the gospel, addressing 
a congregation of cultured and educated people. Men 
gave him breathless attention; women, stirred by his 
eloquence, let their handkerchiefs steal to their eyes; 
it was a rarely impressive scene. 

There was the accustomed crowd of penitents to come 
up to the platform and give the preacher their hands 
and their promise to lead better lives. This part of 
the service was cut shorter than is usual, because Mr. 
Jones had to hurry off to catch the train that took 
him back to Cartersville. 

He announced from the stand that he was always 
ready to come back to Savannah and 'help the good 



288 LIGHTNING FLASHES 

citizens of the town wage a fight for good government. 
He asked those who thought his services had done good 
and who would welcome him back to hold other reli- 
gious gatherings to rise, and the audience was upon 
its feet. Then the evangelist, clasping the hand of 
Dr. Jordan, said that in so doing he took the hand of 
every person in the audience and every person in Sa- 
vannah and that he bade all farewell, with nothing 
but kindness in his heart for any man. "God bless 
you all," he said, and pronounced the benediction. 

Hundreds of the cards that bore the signatures of 
those who enlisted in the fight for good government 
and the enforcement of law were sent up to the plat- 
form. There looked to be more than a thousand and 
may have been many more of these signed cards. 

A final song was sung, amid waving handkerchiefs 
and satisfaction with all that had been done every- 
where expressed. In the midst of it Mr. Jones left the 
platform, and was driven rapidly to the Central Rail- 
way station, where he took the train for his home. 



In this wise the meetings came to an end and went 
into history. The great evangelist who conducted them 
no longer walks among men. His wonderful career was 
finished some six years ago when he was suddenly trans- 
lated to the larger life of the eternal world; but his 
works do follow him. That the influence of his splendid 
labors in Savannah may, in some degree, at least, be 
perpetuated^, is the single reason why the record of this 
.great meeting has been reproduced. 



NOV 25 19!2 



